


Harry Potter and the Siren's Song

by VenusGuided



Category: Silent Trilogy - Sues Cummings
Genre: F/F, F/M, Harry Potter Crossover - Freeform, M/M, also at least one of those ships is uh., and they're not all there yet, it's not an AU i just dont wanna tag the HP fandom yet cos uh lame, more charas to come too obv not just them, not gonna be like.... requited.... or good, we all know which one i think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-07-29 13:29:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7686325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenusGuided/pseuds/VenusGuided
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Voldemort wants the siren. To prevent this, Crow has it arranged for Lao, Arez and Nova to go to Hogwarts for protection. Unfortunately, dainisa and witches/wizards aren't as natural a mix as you'd expect. And this is one hell of a detour from saving Australia: hanging out with Harry Potter at Hogwarts in Fifth Year. What a time to be alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SmashFox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmashFox/gifts).



> ok so in terms of time: this takes place in like 2013. just, move the HP timeline forward a bit. we all have to make sacrifices and frankly i need meme references so fuck you @ the 90s
> 
> also this takes place as a detour from the London section of Silent E. so all the CWs for Silent E still stand, along with: csa, incest, rape, gaslighting, unreality stuff re: time-travel & memories of AUs that could-have-been, and other such stuff arez didn't rly explore.
> 
> .....it's also at least partly crack but semi-serious? it's my usual aesthetic i guess
> 
> AND FINALLY I GUESS don't take anything from this as a guarantee of Silent Trilogy canon! some of it is. some of it isn't. you won't know until SOMEONE finishes the damn trilogy already.
> 
> ahem.
> 
> enjoy?

It was getting close to midnight, and the moonlight spilt across Albus Dumbledore’s desk. Quill dancing across the parchment in the pattern of spidery letters, the old man’s face fell naturally into a smile. After all, he was expecting a visitor.

Rather than the usual blaze of fire, or knock on the door, his visitors chose a rather rude manner of entry, if you can call it an entry. It was a sudden appearance, right in the middle of Albus’ study, despite the protective magic against such feats. Before him stood a tall teenager, handsome and pale, with long hair alternating between black and red hanging loose. His eyes, filled with wisdom far beyond what any mortal should know, were the colour of blood, and equally as haunting. This teenage boy, who was not a teenager at all, had appeared before Dumbledore several times before, each time giving cryptic instructions and on occasions, favours. It was an angel, a wingless angel named Crow.

“Good evening,” the old headmaster said, pulling a paper bag from his swirly rainbow robes. “Sherbet lemon?”

“I already know you replace the sherbet with crushed ecstasy,” Crow replied dryly, scanning the room swiftly. “I have a request.”

Rather than being emotionless as usual, the angel of time’s voice was set grim. Obviously, this was a very serious problem. Pressing his fingertips together, Dumbledore leant forward, meeting Crow’s eyes.

“What is the situation?” the old man inquired.

Surveying the old wizard just as closely, Crow replied evenly. “How aware are you of the Australian War?”

“There has been a war going on for the past ten years,” Dumbledore replied, hesitant. “I am afraid I am uninformed of the details. Any attempts at contact, Muggle or magical, have been blocked.”

“I’ve just come from there,” Crow grimly replied. “Five years from now, it will be run by a siren. He goes by the name Ookami.”

“Fascinating,” Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his blue eyes. “I never knew there were male sirens.”

“He possesses very feminine traits,” Crow said, dismissively.

“Well, I hardly think that matters,” Dumbledore replied, frowning.

Crow shrugged. “Do not, however, let this fool you. He is extremely dangerous, and on the brink of deciding whether or not to use his siren powers for the better or worse of humanity.” There was a twitch in Crow’s lip, which quickly settled into the usual scowl. “It would seem that this is not exclusively an Australian problem any longer. You no doubt can imagine what would happen if Voldemort were to get his hands on an impressionable young siren filled with naught but hatred.”

Serenely, Dumbledore nodded. “Yes, I understand… I suppose you wish for him to be placed in my care?”

Crow shook his head slightly. “That is not what I want, but what my… co-worker recommends.”

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled. “I am glad to hear you are finally working with someone, Mathis. You were quite the brilliant student, but you were extremely anti-social. Even for a Ravenclaw.”

“Spare me the lecture,” Crow scoffed. “Allow the siren and his escorts participation at your school, and I won’t have to call in The Higher Powers.”

To an angel, the only ‘ _higher power_ ’ is that of God. If one as proud as the Angel of Time was willing to ask for help, there was no question about how grave the situation was. “Very well,” Dumbledore replied, lowering his hands. “How many will there be, and what are their names, and ages?”

Rather bored, like speaking up future destruction had grown dull for him, Crow dropped a manila folder, which appeared from thin air without a wand wave, on the headmaster’s desk. “Do not be alarmed if my… co-worker and I appear suddenly. Send one of your subordinates to get them from the listed address at the listed time.”

Dumbledore lifted an elegant eyebrow. “You make it sound like I’m raising an army.”

Crow sent him a pointed look, before disappearing.

Frowning ever so slightly, Dumbledore popped a sherbet lemon into his mouth, before opening the folder. It was looking to be a stressful year.


	2. Exposition (Not So) Expressway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes find out they're going to Hogwarts! Lao shouts at Dumbledore! Nova invites an old man to a fist-fight! Arez considers cannibalism!

After four days of watching the rain, Arez Smythe was restless. For any normal person, ‘restless’ would be, perhaps, pacing at worst. For Arez, it was pacing and ranting at the top of his voice about how bored he was.

It was enough to leave the blonde princess (currently named Lao) across the room constantly sighing, “Just a little longer, shut the hell up.”

Four days of waiting had been more than long enough. Arez needed answers, and needed them now. This was why, despite the judgement of the voice in his head, he swung himself from the window sill, stormed over to Lao on the dusty couch, sneezed several times, before demanding, “Sidekick, tell me _right now_ what we’re waiting for!”

To his frustration, Lao peered up at him with bored purple eyes and replied, “My other brother, Crow.”

“…why didn’t you tell me that before?!”

“You didn’t ask before,” his sidekick softly replied — so softly that Arez had to lean closer, risking Lao punching him. “All you’ve done is complain about how bored you are.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t explain!”

Lao shrugged. “When Crow’s involved, it’s best to follow orders and be patient.”

Scowling, Arez crossed his arms over his chest, before storming back to his window. Those were two things Arez despised on principle.

Lao sighed, before calling, “It’s nothing personal, so stop sulking.”

“I’m talking to Nova!” Arez lied.

Lao sighed yet again, and went back to whatever he was reading. Further vexed by the dismissal, Arez pulled his hair forward before turning back to the rain.

Four days, ten hours, twelve minutes, and counting… He decided to risk a glance to Lao, as his sidekick was much more fascinating than counting. From this angle, and in the rays of the midday sun, Lao’s choppily cut hair seemed to shine like gold to only make his face more miraculously beautiful. Once again, Arez was left wondering how soft Lao’s hair would be, but he knew touching Lao would result in, at best, a slap. He still had several bruises from earlier attempts. It would also never cease to amaze him how _tiny_ his blonde sidekick was. He barely reached Arez’s shoulder, and had such an amazingly tiny figure, Arez wondered how breezes didn’t break Lao, let alone…

Shaking his head, Arez glanced out the window, heart pounding as he tried to banish all memories of Leon Eastman. When Lao had his hair arranged right, it was easy to forget that the right side of Lao’s face was scarred by the wrath of their former teacher.

Suddenly, Lao glanced up, and smiled. Arez blinked, baffled, before scanning the room. Spotting a tall white man with ridiculous pigtailed red-and-black hair and a tiny brunette equally as pale and white, he yelped in surprise. Lao, however, pulled the taller into a hug with a cry of, “Nii-tan!”

Arez wanted to hack every strand from the pale freak’s head — especially when Lao pulled away, cheek stained pink around the scar.

“What took so long?” Lao asked, glancing up into the stranger’s eyes adoringly. “You should’ve been here ages ago…”

Crow shrugged. “Business is business.”

Growling, Arez shouted, “Who the hell are you people?!”

In the back of his mind, the sexy accented voice of Nova offered, _‘How do you not know by now. It’s our brother, Crow.’_

“I could ask the same of you,” the tiny brunette snarled, eyes fixed on the even tinier blonde. “Who the bloody hell are you?”

Lao said something in Dainisan. It sounded very insulting. Not that Arez would know.

“There isn’t time for that,” Crow said. “Down, Remy,” he added, holding the brunette back. With a scowl, he backed off, and Arez was relieved. He didn’t want to see his sidekick suck someone’s soul out with his eyes. “We have a very serious matter to discuss. The Australian situation can wait.”

Arez’s jaw drop, but Lao obediently nodded. “Whatever you say.”

Arez felt faint.

Crow raised his eyebrows. Was one red and the other black? What the hell? “Well. That’s more obedience than I expected…”

“I trust you,” Lao said. “I trust that it’s for the best. You know what I want, and you won’t keep me from making up for what I did, right?”

Crow nodded. “Save it for later. Lao.”

“Yes, do save it,” the brunette muttered.

“There’s another threat we need to worry about,” Crow explained. “One that I’ve recently found will soon turn his interests towards Australia. Because something happened to make him pay attention. Nobody told me what, but I’m certain it was Leon.”

Lao’s eyes widened. “Nii-tan, I messed up, that’s how Leon found me so quickly, so do you think…?”

Crow replied in Dainisan, but Arez could guess he meant ‘Don’t talk about our cunning hopefully not evil plans in front of Arez, he is far too intelligent and sexy, he will absolutely figure out what the hell we’re being so unnecessarily vague about’.

‘ _Yeah, that’s exactly it_ ,’ Nova said. He sounded sarcastic. The last refuge of a desperate man.

Surprisingly, Lao looked at Arez. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I promised you we’d be back in Australia quickly to save everybody, but, again, because of me…”

“Yes, I get it, everything’s your fault cos everything’s all about you,” Arez snapped.

Lao deflated. Arez hadn’t expected that reaction. “Sorry,” he said again, quieter. “Please don’t take it out on anybody else.”

“ _Lao_ ,” Crow growled.

Lao stood up straight again — too straight. “Please. Tell us what we have to do, Crow.”

“Lao,” Crow groaned.

What the hell is with these two, Arez wondered loudly, hoping Nova would answer.

Luckily, Nova did. ‘ _Something happened to Lao. Something Crow knows and I don’t. Something that’ll explain why he’s so weird now, I’m sure_.’

So why he stopped being as happy and nice as he was in the lab? Arez mused.

‘ _…that wasn’t him being happy, you stunted little freak. Jesus Christ_.’

“This, new threat,” Crow started to say, in a strained kind of voice, so Arez paid attention. “He’s notorious in Europe. Quite eager to kill anyone who doesn’t have magic. Pretty Hitler-like, if anybody other than Novie here knows their World War Two history.”

“We all know who Hitler was,” Lao said flatly.

“An emo,” Arez contributed.

Everybody stared at him. Why did that happen so much?

“He wrote a book called _My Pain_ or whatever!” Arez cried.

“Yes, of course you know that,” Crow hissed.

“ _Nii-tan_ ,” Lao said.

“I’m very stressed out right now, okay!” Crow cried. “I don’t want to deal with him!” He blatantly pointed at Arez. Rude. “And now I have to! For way longer than I was told I’d have to! Do you have any idea how stressful that is for me, Lao?!”

“For you,” Lao said.

Crow threw his hands up and cried, “Whatever!” before throwing them down by his side. Unexpectedly, Arez noticed how built his arms were.

‘ _What the fuck is with you and checking out my brothers?!_ ’ Nova snapped.

Arez denied he was even doing that while being unable to tear his eyes from Crow’s deltoids.

“My point is!” Crow shouted. “If we don’t do this detour, this bastard’s gonna meet the old bastard and the future will be _apocalyptic_ instead of just bloody disastrous. So I’m very, very, very sorry Lao, but this is important. And as much as I raised you not to have blind faith and would rather you didn’t, _thank you for the blind faith_.”

“What are angels for,” Lao said. “So, this new threat, what’s he called?”

There was a pause, during which even the previous hostility seemed to disappear in terror, before Crow replied, “He goes by the name Lord Voldemort.”

Arez stared for a moment, before laughing. “What the hell kind of stupid villain name is that?! It’s not even threatening! It sounds like some Russian stew or something! He should be called something better, like, I don’t know! Something which shows his kind of power! What’s his dainisa power?”

“He’s a wizard. A Dark Wizard.”

“A wizard,” Lao repeated in disbelief.

Crow sighed. “It’s a —”

“Darth Dark!” Arez cried. “He should be called Darth Dark!”

“You call him that and see if it catches on,” Lao suggested, rolling his eyes with a suffering sigh. “I don’t think his _name_ is what’s important. A lot of villains have ridiculous names.”

There was something pointed in his gaze, so Arez fell silent with only a slight grumble of protest.

“So. Wizard?” Lao asked again.

Crow nodded. “I suppose you could think of it as being like a sect. A group of dainisa who broke away from jyji influence and formed their own magical community, beliefs, and ways of using their powers.”

Lao clenched his fists like this didn’t sound cool. “You’re fucking _kidding me_ , right?”

“No,” Crow replied. “To be honest, Lao, I was a part of their community for a while. Before I met you. As was Nova.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Lao whispered.

“We went to a school they run in Scotland,” Crow continued to explain. “It was pretty shitty, actually.”

“You still went to a magic school!” Lao shouted. “You — what about people like him?!” Apparently it was Lao’s turn to point at Arez. “All these dainisa, all over the world, who grow up scared and alone because we can’t stay safe long enough to have a proper community! All of us scattered and divided except for a language and some lie of a culture thanks to the jyju! Thanks to _our families_ , Crow! And you’re telling me all that suffering was stupid? It was for nothing?! Because there’re dainisa out there calling themselves wizards and together enough to have a _fucking school system_?! That doesn’t make any fucking sense, Crow! What am I doing this for?! Why don’t we have that?! Why don’t people like Arez have that?! WHAT THE _FUCK_ IS THIS BULLSHIT!”

Lao was panting heavily, tears rolling down his cheeks, face red with anger, and Arez thought, damn. Lao can rant too.

“I get why you’re angry,” Crow said levelly. “I think that when you’re there you’ll see what a flawed place and community it is.”

“At least it’s something,” Lao said. “At least they have something.”

“Please just go with it for now,” Crow pleaded.

Lao looked away. “Haven’t you asked enough of me?”

“Oh, get over yourself,” the brunette groaned.

“Remy, shut up,” Crow said.

“No!” apparently named Remy said. “Suck it up, Princess. You want to do what’s right? You want to help your people? Shut up, learn from the bloody wizards, and learn a goddamn lesson for once in your pathetic life.”

“I don’t even know you, why do you think you’re allowed to talk to me like that?” Lao demanded.

“Because I don’t give a fuck?” Remy said.

Surprisingly, Lao looked at Arez. Like he was seeking approval.

It made more sense when Nova said (through Arez): “Pixie, we’ve come this far. I’ll be there with you. I promise.”

“I need you there properly,” Lao said. He looked back at Crow and Remy. “We can get Nova’s body back first, right?”

“Time-travel,” Crow said flatly.

“So time-travel to a point where none of this happened and fix it all.”

Crow coughed. “Well. I can’t do that.”

Lao rolled his eyes.

Arez decided it was time to ask, “So what, we need to defeat this villain in some epic journey and quest?”

Crow, infuriatingly, switched to a monotone. “No, we simply need to keep you, Smythe, away from him.”

“…why, cos I’m so awesome?”

“Obviously because he wants your siren powers,” Lao snapped. “Do you use your brain for anything other than rants?”

“ _Uh, yeah,_ things like I dunno, _saving your life_ you ungrateful —” Suddenly, Arez found himself speaking in a deeper, gruffer tone with a hatred for the letter ‘g’. “So, Mathis, are you sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’?”

Grimly, Crow nodded. “I’m afraid so, Nova. I’ll have to ask you all to go to Hogwarts for protection.”

Nova swore through Arez. Lao raised his eyebrows. “Um, what’s that? Your fucking wizard school?”

“Yes,” Crow replied. “Now, let’s get Nova’s body back.”

“FINALLY!!” Arez cheered.

“And then you will be escorted to Hogwarts, where you will attempt to blend in.” As an afterthought, Crow said, “Or will be safe, at any rate.”

“Do you really think that I’ll be safe with him? And a bunch of wizards I already hate on principle?” Lao asked, hand on his hip.

“No,” Crow replied dismissively. “Now, grab on, and I shall take you to Nova’s body.”

Arez was so excited he screamed.

*

With Crow’s powers of teleportation on their side, it took no time at all to find Nova’s body, and even less time for Lao to pluck his soul from Arez’s body and place where it rightfully belonged. However, what did take a long time was Nova’s vanity. As the darkly toned body stirred, sitting up shakily, he opened his one visible eye — a magnificent sapphire hue that left Arez breathless — before running his fingers testily through his long, two-toned hair. Like Crow’s, it was red and black, but thankfully not pigtailed. It was mostly red, but several inches were as black as Arez’s own. Nova’s eye swivelled to see the colour, and, to Arez’s amazement, he yelped.

“WHAT THE FUCK?! MY FUCKING HAIR! IT’S BLACK! FUCKING HELL I FUCKING HATE BLACK HAIR!!”

“Calm down,” Crow ordered. “We can handle it.”

“YEAH, YOU CAN FUCKIN’ HANDLE IT, YOU FUCKIN’ CHOSE TO GET THAT STUPID FUCKIN’ HAIR!”

Remy, the tiny British brunette who did nothing but glare at Lao whilst hovering possessively close to Crow, suddenly came over and smiled warmly at him. “C’mon, Are-sugar-bear. Let’s leave the brothers to sort themselves out.”

Before Arez could open his mouth to insist that he wanted to _help_ sort them out, Remy had grabbed him by the elbow and led him from the hospital room. Soon they stood awkwardly side-by-side in the elevator. Chewing the inside of his lip, Arez decided to caution a psychotic response by asking, “Why did you call me a sugar-bear?”

Remy giggled. “Oh, you’re so _adorable_!”

Frankly, if Arez hadn’t been so terrified, he would have insisted that he was actually divinely sexy.

“My name, Aré-bunny-plum —” What the hell was a bunny-plum? “— is Remy Lucas.”

Deciding to ignore the bizarre nicknames, Arez asked, “Are you Crow’s sidekick?”

“More like his lover, Aré-pumpkin-fairy,” Remy grinned. “Well. When I’m in the mood to let him call me that, anyway.”

Cheeks heating, Arez focused on the luminous panel atop the elevator, scrolling through numbers as it descended. “S-so, what do you do?”

Remy’s smile was super strange. “Crow, you might be surprised to hear, is one vanilla little shit, he’s all talk and no kink, so I’ve been having fun educating him about the more interesting side of sex, like —”

“NO, I meant as your JOB! Saving the world!” Arez cried, wishing for some mind-bleach.

“Oh.” Remy didn’t seem so eager about this topic. “We do what Mikey, Carmy and Gabby says, sweetie, so we travel backwards and forwards in time, Aré-darling-peach, and fix the world so it sustains life for as long as possible.”

“That’s really awesome and all, but why do you keep calling me foods?”

Once again, the brunette giggled. Arez found himself infected too; he was grinning. “That’s because I’m hungry, sweetie.”

“…don’t eat me.”

“Oh, don’t be silly, I only do that to Crow.”

Arez never knew having a lover involved cannibalism.

Ever persistent, Remy led Arez to a line vending machine near the reception desk. There were maybe five in a row, each holding various drinks and foods. Arez recognised none. Without any inquiry, Remy selected two bottles of something called CocaCola from one, a box of chips from the other, and dragged Arez to sit at a nearby table.

How someone so tiny and British could be so forceful remained a mystery to Arez. It did, however, impress him. Most people wouldn’t dare to mess with the almighty siren protagonist set to save the world.

“Here ya go!” Remy chirped, handing him a bottle. Arez yelped slightly at the hiss it gave when he twisted the top. Remy giggled, Arez glared, and the brunette said, “Now, then… how sexy is Nova, hmm?”

Arez choked on the fizzy drink, bright red.

Giggling, Remy nodded. “Yep, I thought so!”

Determined to change the subject, Arez coolly demanded, “What’s your power?”

Remy’s smile, Arez suddenly realised, was just like a crocodile’s; more worrying than reassuring. “I don’t have any, Are-sweetie-pie. I’m a human.”

For several stunned seconds, Arez just stared. Either not concerned or pretending not to be, Remy started to eat. Even more baffled, Arez shouted, “WHAT?!”

“I’m human,” Remy repeated, like it was nothing. Like the human race hadn’t just spent the past ten years trying to kill every single dainisa in Arez’s country. Like it didn’t matter that he was a human, and Arez was a dainisa, and neither could live while the other survived. Remy, in fact, seemed so unconcerned by the fact that they were enemies he pulled a face and remarked, “These’re horrible, but I’m so hungry I don’t even care… Crow seems to forget that I can’t survive on a diet of come.”

“Come?” Arez repeated, mind spinning. “Come where? What?” He massaged his temples. “Learn to speak English properly, dammit!”

Remy giggled. “I’m the Brit, Aré-plum-pudding, not you.”

“YEAH WELL IF IT WASN’T FOR YOU PEOPLE I’D SPEAK DAINISAN LIKE I SHOULD!” Arez cried.

“Not if you kept on being raised by Christian Smythe,” Remy remarked.

Arez glared. He slumped back. “If you’re human,” he grumpily growled, “then why does Crow keep you around? I know he can teleport! And Nova said he time-travels! So why does he keep you around?”

Another giggle. “You’re kind of adorable, you know that?”

“I am not. I’m divinely sexy. Answer the question.”

Remy rolled his eyes. “You’re pretty, so I’ll let your stupidity slide. Plus I like you, in a platonic way.”

Arez was both relieved and sickened to hear it. Emotions sucked.

“This,” Remy said, tugging his emerald necklace into sight, “lets me see the future. Crow can’t see the future, just go to it. I’m not perfect at it, not like the Angel of Prophecy, but she’s a total bitch so I get to fact-check. Of course, Crow doesn’t listen to me enough, but oh well. We’re the perfect team, and we’ll stop what’s coming.”

Arez nodded in understanding. It was just like him and Lao, only minus the whole love thing. They weren’t in love. That would be stupid. Lao was a blonde emo, and his sidekick, and Arez was going to have to erase Lao’s memory anyway, with the song he was supposed to sing to save the world…

That was the one good thing about this tangent adventure. It meant he’d have longer with Lao.

Suspiciously, with his initial prejudice fading in favour of logic, Arez asked, “What’s being human like?”

“Uh, duh. Like being a dainisa without magic.”

“So… we’re the same, otherwise?”

Smiling, Remy nodded.

Arez let out a sigh of disbelief. “I… I dunno… that’s a really big difference.”

“It’s only as big as you make it,” Remy replied.

“You humans already how big it is for us,” Arez replied. “Big enough to kill us over.”

“I’m not involved in that,” Remy replied. “We’re not _all_ bad.”

Arez sighed heavily. He wished he could believe a song would be enough to fix everything. He wished he could have as much blinding hope as Lao did.

“I’m kinda wondering, though. Aren’t you, uh, infatuated with that blondie?”

Faking disgust, Arez shook his head. “Protagonists and sidekicks don’t fall in love. I don’t fall in love; it’s a waste of time! All that fluttering around going ‘does he like me?’ is stupid. I’m never falling in love, and I’m never bothering with it.”

Remy giggled, and Arez scowled. “You are so naïve, Are-lovely-honey. It’s cute.” All traces of humour disappeared from Remy’s pale face. “Don’t get too close to that blondie, Arez. You won’t like where it gets you.”

Stunned, Arez tried to nod, but found all he could do was wonder why. What could possibly be bad about Lao? Sure, his moods changed at an alarming rate, and even a wrong word could piss him off, but that was exciting. It made just talking to Lao a challenge. His sidekick was the most interesting person in the world, and Arez wanted to figure Lao out. He wanted to spend forever doing just that.

Before Arez could ask Remy more questions, the brunette jumped up. The next thing Arez knew, he was sitting opposite Crow, and Remy was hovering by the time-traveller’s side.

“Warn people before you do that!” Arez cried, wishing he hadn’t jumped up in fear.

“Perhaps,” Crow replied. Arez knew it meant ‘ _no way_ ’, because he would say the same thing.

“Where’s Lao? And Nova?”

“Nova is getting his hair done, and Lao is acting as translator,” was the monotonous reply. “We have more important matters to discuss.”

“Like what?” Arez scowled. Something about Crow was alarming. He didn’t know why or how, but Crow hated him. It was clear in those blood red eyes.

“Your song,” Crow replied. “The song you are going to sing to inspire peace in your God-forsaken country.”

“It is _not_ God-forsaken!”

Crow quirked an eyebrow slightly. “How would you know?”

Arez’s fists were shaking.

“You will need to work on your siren abilities,” Crow continued. “Though I would rather you had no power, I see that this course of action is most definitely for the best. Your siren powers are severely lacking.”

“How would you know?!” Arez snarled.

“Crow,” Remy’s disapproving tone calmed Arez slightly. At least Crow’s boyfriend was on his side.

“At this magic school, you will learn a lot about control. Both self and magic related, both of which you are horribly lacking in.”

Remy coughed, and it sounded suspiciously like the word ‘ _hypocrite_ ’. He was ignored.

“This magic school is the safest place for you to be,” Crow explained. “Voldemort is after you. I know Lao has already deduced as much, but I don’t need him having that confirmed. You need to keep an eye on him, though I hate to ask it. Because Lao will fight anyone in a misguided attempt to give you a second chance.”

“Second chance?” Arez said, frowning.

“It doesn’t matter,” Crow dismissed. “Stay in Hogwarts grounded. Stay protected, and you will protect Lao in turn. I hear that deep down you care what happens to him.”

“Of course I care!” Arez cried.

“Then do as I say,” Crow replied. “I don’t want to see my little brother murdered for something as worthless as you.”

“Crow,” Remy hissed. “Do you really think that calling Are-fluffy-love worthless due to your own beef that is entirely all about a little blonde bitch princess is fair? He hasn’t really done anything wrong yet.”

“Yet.”

Remy sighed. “Aré-giggle-puss, Crow’s a jackass, but please, do stay at school. It’ll be fun. Sometimes. You can trust me, I can see the future.”

“Sometimes,” Crow muttered.

“You guys piss me off,” Arez muttered quietly.

Crow shrugged. “Glad to return the favour.”

“Aren’t you curious about Australia? Your whole sing mission?” Remy asked.

Arez had actually forgotten. He’d been focused on the idea of going to an actual magic school, and never setting foot in that re-education centre again. Maybe he’d never even have to acknowledge Australia again. “Uh. Yeah. What about that?”

Crow explained, “Once we know that Voldemort is no longer a threat, I will take you back in time to the date which best fits the requirements for you to sing your song. You will sing it, and after you do, you won’t be able to return to Australia. You can stay in Hogwarts forever, I suppose. Teach a new generation of amoral shits.”

It didn’t sound too horrible, really. After all, Australia was a horrible place. Even if the war would be over, Arez didn’t know if he could really handle living there – especially if it meant risking being reunited with his adoptive family. “Why?”

“Because you are quite an amoral shit too,” Crow replied. “You’ll fit in at Hogwarts.”

“ _I am not an amoral shit_ ,” Arez insisted. “I mean, why can’t I go back to Australia after I sing?”

“Because it’s what you have to do,” Crow replied. “If you like the magic school, you can go back there. Or you can go to Canada and be reunited with your brother Eleos. I don’t care, you’re just not allowed anywhere near Australia until the year 2020.”

Seven years, Arez calculated with a scowl. What if Lao didn’t leave Australia? Though, Nova said Lao’s life would be better without him…

“It’s for the good of the world,” Crow said. “You don’t have a choice.”

Arez buried his head in his hands.

*

After what Remy had said, Arez had been determined not to look at Nova. He already knew what the soul former inhabiting his body looked like — he’d seen the hotness in his sleep.

Sadly, Arez hadn’t taken into account presence. For whatever reason, Nova was impossible to ignore. His hair was now blood red and cut to cover his left eye, plus that trench coat was so incredibly awesome. It didn’t help that Lao was constantly fretting over him, so Arez could never look away.

Once again, they were told to wait at that boring old house. Since the rain had finally stopped, and Lao liked to see his potential enemies, they were allowed to go out on the front porch. There, they subjected Nova to a serious questioning.

“You’ve been to this wizard school, haven’t you?” Lao asked.

Glancing up, the redhead nodded. “Yep, for a year. Two years before I met you.”

Lao looked down at his hands for a minute, maybe counting, before nodding. “So the year before…?”

“Yeah.”

“The year before what?” Arez impatiently demanded.

Lao opened his mouth to snap, but Nova beat him to it. “Before Leon started training me ‘n’ Crow, dumbass.”

“…oh.” So Leon started training them years ago. He didn’t know how old Nova was. Twenty at the oldest, he would guess, and seventeen at the youngest. “What’s it like there?”

“A fuckin’ insane school.”

“Nii-san,” Lao sighed, “Arez has never been to a proper school, so he’ll want more than that.”

Nova rolled his eyes, and cast his mind back. “They called us wizards. Crow went there too, for two years or so. Spent half his time in detention, the other half in the principal’s office.”

Lao giggled. Actually _giggled_. “Okay, I believe it more now.”

“We were sorted in houses.” Seeing their baffled faces, he explained. “’S groups within the grade for classes ‘n’ dorms and shit. They say it’s like a second family, ‘cept a hat did it.”

“…a hat?”

Nova nodded.

“A pirate hat?”

“No, a wizard’s hat. It’s a fuckin’ wizard school, not a fuckin’ pirate school.”

Arez sent him a pouty glare.

Nova glanced away for a moment, thinking. “Yeah, it’s a boarding school. Not like your prison, Aré, not out to kill us, ‘n’ we got to leave between semesters. But they made us use wands and the house thing was like, cult-ish, and nobody had heard of the Internet or computers or TVs, it fucked Mathis up. And they were all obsessed with blood? And a baby.”

“A baby?” Lao repeated. “These wizards, they don’t…” He sat up straighter and leant closer to Nova. “Did people obsess over me, when I was a baby?”

“Yeah, duh, obviously,” Nova replied.

Lao looked horrified. “They don’t have a princess, do they?”

Arez couldn’t believe his ears.

Nova laughed. “Nah, Pixie, you don’t have to worry about competition.”

“Then what’s with the baby?” Lao demanded.

“I think he died for someone’s sins?” Nova frowned. “I dunno Pixie, it was years ago. Mostly I was thinking about how weird and surprisingly uncool it all was, y’know.”

Lao shrugged. “That’s definitely enough of a general idea, so don’t worry.” His eyes flickered to Arez. “I’m amazed you’re not freaking out.”

“I’m amazed you are freaking out,” Arez replied. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

Lao raised his eyebrows. “What you don’t know about me could fill a library.”

Nova snorted. “Maybe a book, Pixie. One of those YA things you read in secret.”

Lao glared. “Shut up, Aniki.”

“Well!” Arez cried, because he didn’t know what YA is. “They use wands. That’s stupid!”

Nova smirked. “Don’t’cha like wands, Aré?”

Arez huffed. “Well. I guess I have to see one before I decide for sure.”

“And hold one,” Nova added.

“Well, yeah, duh,” Arez said.

Lao and Nova snickered.

“…what?”

Lao laughed louder.

“Don’t worry,” Nova said.

“You’re so _weird_ ,” Arez said. “Nova! Show me your wand.”

Lao started laughing so hard his shoulders shook. Arez was sure it’d sound prettier if Lao was laughing at someone else. But then again, it wasn’t an attractive laugh at all.

“Th-though, Aniki,” Lao choked out. “You should, probably get your weird magic school stuff.”

Nova nodded. “Yeah, yeah, all that crap’s in the attic or somethin’.” He stood up and went inside.

Now that he was finally alone with Lao, Arez was so overwhelmed he couldn’t even remember what he’d wanted to say or do. Maybe it was just being with Lao and no one else.

Probably not. He felt unsatisfied.

“Are you really okay with this?” Lao asked, making Arez jump.

“Yeah,” the siren replied. “It’s just… a lot to take in, right?”

Lao nodded. “I always thought dainisa everywhere were too disorganised to open a school. And I always figured if there was one, I’d _know_ , being princess and all. Even if it’s what Crow says, and a… cultural sect, or whatever?”

“Maybe,” Arez started to ponder, “they’re a subspecies? Or like, the link between human and dainisa. Middle ground in evolution, y’know?”

“But Nova could do their magic,” Lao pointed out. “Still, that’s the best explanation we’ve got for now.”

Arez nodded smugly.

“It’s a shame that we won’t be in the same house,” Lao noted.

“What makes you say that?”

“I’m assuming it’ll be based on personality,” Lao patiently explained. “And we’re too different to be together.”

Somehow, Arez got the sense that Lao was talking about more than the school houses. He knew better than to question it, though.

With several loud thuds and a long scrapping sound, Nova returned, a large case of luggage in tow. On the side, Arez spotted, ‘ _N. A. Jalanis_ ’.

“What’s the ‘A’ stand for?” he asked.

“My middle name.”

Intrigued, Arez said, “I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

Nova’s lip twitched slightly. “I already know it… Arez Jonathan Smythe.”

Lao snickered. “That why you don’t like Jon?”

“I DON’T LIKE JON BECAUSE HE’S A WHINY BITCH!”

Lao laughed louder.

Embarrassed, Arez shrieked, “Shut up! Just show us that stuff already!”

Ever smug, Nova opened the truck. Quickly, before Arez could pry, he plucked a dark stick with a darker handle, and slammed it closed again.

“HEY, what the hell?!”

Opening his trench coat, Nova slid it into an inside pocket, and closed it again, before reaching out. His hands closed securely on Arez’s shoulder’s, and spun him around to see a man with orange hair standing outside the gate, watching them.

“…oh.”

“Hello there!” the man called, “Could you come over here for a minute?”

Suspicious, Arez glanced over at Lao. Just as expected, Lao’s eyes were completely pupil-free as he read the man’s soul. “Nothing bad,” his sidekick concluded before approaching.

“C’mon Lame,” Nova said, shoving him forward.

Scowling, Arez followed. Nova was right behind him and strangely enough, it made him feel better.

“Where do the wild roses grow?” the ginger inexplicably asked. Arez had thought people with glasses were supposed to be intelligent.

“In the shade of a Coolabah tree,” Lao smoothly replied. Then Arez realised it was a secret code, and scowled. Why hadn’t his sidekick reported this to him?

“Ah, so you are the ones,” the man cheerfully observed. He offered his hand to Lao. “Arthur Weasley.”

“Lao Yamaguchi,” he replied, shaking. Arez wondered when Lao had decided on that name. “I suppose you’ll be taking us to this… school?”

Arthur chuckled. “Oh, no, you’ve got a while yet. It’s only August.”

Lao frowned. He looked at Nova and very quietly said, “But, shouldn’t we have time to handle Australia before then…?”

Nova shrugged. To cover for Lao, he asked, “Where’re we going instead?”

In response, Arthur handed them each a piece of paper. On it were the words:

_The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix can be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London_.

“Memorise that, then destroy it.”

Nodding, Lao held out his hand for their pages. Reading it quickly several times, Arez dropped it into Lao’s palm. Nova followed suit. A flame engulfed the parchment. Calmly, Lao sprinkled the ashes onto the lawn.

“Incredibly,” Arthur breathed.

Lao shrugged. “So I guess we should get our stuff.” Without awaiting response, he turned to the others and said, “I’ll get it, just wait here.”

How Lao expected to carry all that by himself was a mystery to Arez. Perhaps Lao simply refused to believe how tiny and delicate he actually was. Either way, Nova stopped him from following, and they barely had to wait a minute before Lao came back, a backpack hanging from each shoulder, and dragging Nova’s trunk along like it was nothing. Arez quickly took his own bag, and Nova took his trunk.

Arthur smiled. “Jolly good! Now then, we’ll be off.” He paused, glancing around. “…where’s the nearest train station again?”

Rolling his eyes, Nova stepped forward and led the way.

Sooner than expected, Arez found himself sitting beside Lao on a train. He’d heard about the some-times underground trains in Sydney (mostly due to their popularity as weapons in the war), but this was a _subway_! It was cool! If Arthur, who was middle-aged and distinctly uncool, hadn’t been on about how amazing it was Arez would have.

“We’ll be wanting King’s Cross,” Arthur noted as they pulled up at the first station.

“Three more,” Nova said with a roll of his eyes. Lao nodded in confirmation.

How did they know so much about London, anyway? Arez had learned not to question Lao’s past, as it always ended up cutting sarcasm and a temper tantrum, but his curiosity refused to take no for an answer…

But what he could ask Lao was about the name change.

“Hey, so, at school, weren’t you Ixtab?” Arez asked him, quietly as he could manage.

Lao nodded.

“Then, why’re you…?”

“I want everybody to know I’m Japanese,” Lao muttered. “And I’m curious how they’ll react to my family’s name.”

“Why would they react?” Arez wondered.

Lao rolled his eyes. “Because I’m the heir of the most powerful dainisan royal family, maybe?”

“Oh. Yeah. That.”

“In Australia I was incognito, here I’m not,” Lao concluded, turning away.

“You weren’t very good at it,” Arez said.

Lao ignored him the rest of the trip. If he didn’t know any better, Arez would’ve thought Lao was sulking.

On the platform, they met a grizzly-looking man with a wooden leg and a bowler hat tipped over one eye. Arez could vaguely make out straps.

“Are you a pirate?!” Arez exclaimed excitedly. That would just make this whole thing worthwhile. Maybe, since he was obviously old, this pirate would teach Arez his secret! Choose him as his apprentice, the next Dread Pirate Grizzly!

Sadly, the pirate sent him a sharp look, before growling out, “Why did the Grinch steal Christmas?”

Evidently, he was not a pirate.

“To top Carmen SanDiego,” Arthur replied. “Afternoon, Alastor.”

For some reason, Nova tensed. Arez was quickly distracted, however, when this Alastor-not-pirate-grizzly guy scowled at them.

“Are you sure it’s really them?”

“They knew the code,” Arthur assured him. “They do stand out, don’t they?”

“Like rabbits in a lion’s den.”

Arez grinned. “So we’re some pretty bad-ass bunnies!!”

Nova chuckled, and Lao bit his lip, but Arez was otherwise ignored as the not-pirate started to limp away with a gruff, “Come on.”

“Alastor Moody,” Arthur explained. “Mad-Eye to most. Brilliant man, Britain’s top Auror, though he’s rather paranoid… well, come along them, best keep up.”

For several blocks, the only sounds were cars racing by, other pedestrians, and store spruikers trying to call them in. No matter what caught Arez’s eye or ears, he had to keep moving. Lao was also glancing around a lot, trying to fake curiosity, but Arez knew he was checking for potential enemies. He sighed. Did Lao ever relax?

Finally, they reached Grimmauld Place. As seemed to be very common with London, all the houses in the street were linked, and would be impossible to tell apart if it weren’t for the numbers. As they walked along, Arez kept a close eye, and this was how the problem became abundantly clear.

There was no number twelve.

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

“Silence!” Moody-the-definitely-not-pirate barked.

“Think about that paper I showed you,” Arthur suggested.

Angrily muttering, Arez crossed his arms, determined to do anything but.

“Arez, just do it,” Lao sighed.

“…fine!”

As he recited the parchment in his head, the line of buildings started to shake. Inside numbers eleven and thirteen, the people continued to watch television like their houses weren’t being split apart. Then, a grimy door appeared, followed by equally as dirty windows, and finally the actually walls. It was a trippy sight, and as number twelve settled into its place, Arez the appropriate response:

“Whoa.” He blinked several times as they were ushered inside. “How does that work?”

“Magic, Arez,” Lao sighed.

“But it just appeared, and no one noticed, like it’s on a different plain of existence, but we didn’t go to a different plain, so did we bring it to us and now we’re in a different plain? But then that doesn’t explain how no one noticed, and it doesn’t make sense, and… my brain hurts.”

“First rule of magic,” Lao whispered, “don’t question how it works. It just does, so just go with it.”

Arez huffed. “That’s so _stupid_.”

“Oi, be quiet!” Moody snapped. “Don’t touch anything, and follow us.”

It was a dark, dank, and very dirty house — not the sleek high-tech metal HQ Arez had been expecting. Ever corner and lampshade was covered with cobwebs, and several paintings, too. The rest were covered with dusty curtains, and Arez was tempted to draw them back to see… He shook his head, and started trying not to observe. It made it too tempting to touch. Silently, Arez tip-toed after the others down a narrow staircase, and into a stone room illuminated only by a roaring fireplace. A chill ran down Arez’s spine, and he wondered if he’d accidentally signed up to help some villains. As he glanced around, he noticed a stove, and instantly realised this was just a kitchen. This gave him no relief; kitchens are an omen. Nothing good is ever discussed in the kitchen.

“Have a seat.” Smiling, Arthur gestured to the long table. “Won’t be long.” Quickly, he joined Moody by the fireplace, blocking it from view.

Arez glanced to Lao, seeing as the blonde seemed to sense danger. He shrugged. “Might as well.” Elegant as ever, his sidekick pulled out a chair and sat. Arez sat on his left side, and Nova on his right.

“I don’t suppose this is standard school policy?” Lao asked dryly.

Nova shrugged. “I don’t think the school actually has policies.”

Nervously chewing his lip, Arez drummed his fingers lightly on the table. At first the tune was nothing, just _tap-tap-tap_. Quickly, it evolved, until it became the last thing he wanted to hear – the painful melody of his song to end it all. To take Lao from him. Taking a deep breath, he lay his hands flat on the table, willing the music from his mind.

Destiny was starting to consume him.

For a moment, the room flashed green. Arthur and Moody stepped away from the fireplace, and out stepped a tall old man with the longest beard Arez had ever seen. It was tucked into the belt looping his bright purple robes. Half-moon glasses sat upon his crooked nose, and under them was a serene smile. Even if he hadn’t resembled Gandalf, Arez was certain he would have liked this man immediately thanks to that smile.

“Good evening, I apologise for keeping you waiting,” the man said, sitting opposite them with elegance to rival Lao’s. “I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

Even his name was epic. Arez secretly wished this guy was his grandfather _and_ Gandalf. No, wait, Nova knew his grandparents and said they were assholes, unlike Gandalf… Great-grandfather? With the length of that beard, it didn’t seem impossible.

“Arez Smythe, pronounced like the boring Smith but spelt S-M-Y-T-H-E, there’s a silent ‘e’,” Arez countered swiftly. “Siren protagonist extraordinaire.”

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled like cheerful stars.

“And I’m Lao Yamaguchi,” Lao said, waiting for a moment. There was no response, so he added, “And this is Nova Jalanis. I’m sure you already know all about us from Crow, though.”

“Only your names and photos,” was the serene reply. “It would seem Crow doesn’t wish to betray your trust.”

“We’re brothers,” Lao and Nova chimed as one.

Dumbledore beamed, and he nodded politely to Nova. “It was… Gryffindor, correct?”

“Yep.”

“I often wondered why you and Crow were unenrolled at the same time,” Dumbledore said. “Now I have my answer.”

Nova raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, I’m sure you wondered.”

Arez, sick of fidgeting in silence, demanded, “So why’re we here?”

“Ah, yes, to business,” Dumbledore chuckled. “You’re quite earnest, Mr Smythe.”

“Call me Arez. And call him Lao. And call him Nova.”

“Aré, you don’t get to pick for us,” Nova said.

“I so do, subplot, so shut it!”

Lao leant closer to Arez and whispered in a voice that shook with rage, “If you ever try to control how people relate to me again, I’ll —”

Arthur and Moody quickly joined them, preventing the impending bicker. Now that Moody’s hat was removed, Arez was delighted and sickened to see an electric blue glass-eye flickering around the room, before settling on him.

“Are you aware of a wizard known as Lord Voldemort?” Dumbledore asked. Arthur shuddered at the name.

“Yes,” Lao replied. “Crow explained that he would most likely go after the siren. Which’d be Arez.” His eyes flickered to Arez, and he scowled. “There’s been a lot of that going around.”

“Indeed?” Dumbledore remarked. “And, what other attempts have there been to use your siren abilities, Arez?”

Frowning, Arez glanced away, biting the inside of his lip.

“I want to use them,” Lao said flatly. “To end the Australian Civil War properly. But I don’t want to use them against Arez’s will. Obviously.”

Arez tried not to think about that.

Lao looked at him, uncertain, before continuing, “There was this, man. He was quite famous in our community or, what we have of one. And in Australia. His name was Leon Eastman. He wanted to use Arez to start another war, one where our people, um. Magical people, I guess, would take over Australia. And then have it as a continent only for magical people.”

Arez nodded to confirm it. Again, he tried not to think about it.

“Crow has reason to believe Leon was associating with this, Voldemort guy,” Lao said. When the shudders went around the grown-ass adults in the room, he frowned and asked, “Did I say something improper?”

“We don’t say the name,” Arthur said in a strained voice.

Dumbledore, however, said, “You have done nothing wrong. Please, continue.”

“I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable,” Lao said. “There’s not much else to it, except if Leon did tell, uh, that guy his plan there’s a chance that’s why he knows about Arez and that’s why he’s after him now.”

Dumbledore made a thoughtful noise.

“I have to admit, I don’t really know anything about your community,” Lao said. “I didn’t know magical schools existed before today. Arez is the same. The only wizards we know about are from stories like… _Lord of the Rings_ and _Star Wars_.”

“Jedi aren’t wizards,” Nova muttered.

Arez had been about to say the same thing. He looked at Nova in surprise.

“They’re not,” Nova said defensively.

“Not the point,” Lao said irritably. “I don’t know how much you know about us. But I have a responsibility to protect my people that is at odds with giving out too much information.”

“We have the Statue of Secrecy too,” Arthur Weasley said.

Lao raised his eyebrows. “A statue? So you have a _government_ too?”

“Okay,” Nova said quickly. “Lao can’t say shit cos of his obligation and duty and what-fuckin’-ever. But I can.” He gestured at the three of them. “We’re dainisa. Does that mean anything to you?”

The other two men looked at Dumbledore for guidance, which was a clear ‘no’. Dumbledore nodded his head ever so slightly.

“I have some familiarity,” the old man said.

Lao started to shout, “And you didn’t see fit to fill us in in your —”

Nova grabbed Lao’s hand. He shut up. Very slowly, Nova said, “We’re not the same though, are we? Wizards and dainisa.”

“No,” Dumbledore agreed. “We do rather identify as humans, actually.”

Arez gave a disgusted groan that quickly became a gasp of surprise. “The missing link!” he cried. “I was right!”

“Not necessarily,” Lao said. “That could be cultural.” He tilted his chin up slightly, surveying the wizards. “You were surprised when I used magic without a wand before, right?”

“They used wands,” Nova said. “They don’t do it without wands.”

“Some kinds of magic can be performed without a wand,” Dumbledore corrected.

“We never use wands,” Lao said. “Nova and Crow are proof that we can, I suppose. Maybe there are other dainisa at this school. And maybe your own magic isn’t strong enough to work without something to enhance it and focus it.”

The wizards looked _pissed_. Once again Arez could fully believe Lao was a princess, but this was the first time he believed Lao was the bratty snobby irresponsible princess Leon always made him out to be.

“He’s fourteen,” Nova contributed.

“I don’t see why that’s relevant,” Lao said.

“Oh, give it a couple more years, then you will.”

“Well, I don’t care,” Arez declared. “I’m never calling myself a wizard if it means calling myself _human_. I’m a _dainisa_.”

“I agree,” Lao said, surprisingly. “I’m eager to attend your school and learn what I can, but I can’t abandon our people or what little solidarity we have just to call myself a witch.”

“Perfectly understandable,” Dumbledore replied, though the others looked incredibly sceptical.

Lao leant back in his chair, still holding Nova’s hand. The hell? “Now it’s your turn.”

“Naturally,” Dumbledore replied. His face hardened as his tone grew serious. “Voldemort is a dark wizard who wishes to control the magic world.”

“Of course.”

“Fifteen years ago, he was at large, and unfortunately succeeding quite well at his goal. Until, that is, he was defeated, by Harry Potter.”

The room seemed to brighten with just the name.

“Oh yeah,” Nova said. “That was the baby’s name.”

“Yes, Harry was just a baby at the time,” Dumbledore explained, and Arez felt a surge of jealousy. “Voldemort murdered both his parents, before turning his wand on Harry. His spell backfired, and the Dark Lord fell.”

“Only he didn’t really and he’s back now and probably immune to whatever got him last time?” Arez guessed.

“That is, unfortunately, what has happened,” was the grim reply. “The Minister of Magic is ignoring all evidence and reason and claiming the Dark Lord has not returned, so we are in a very grim situation. It has only been a month, but already wizards are starting to disappear, and his armies seem to be growing.”

“What kind of policy does this… Dark Lord have?” Lao asked. “I mean, surely he wants to do more than just, vaguely rule the world?”

“Yes. He wishes to purify the blood of wizards, and eradicate Muggles.”

Lao immediately paled. “That’s… that’s….” His hand tightened around Nova’s. “That’s horrible.”

“Yes, you can see why we must stop him,” Dumbledore said.

“He’d be popular in Australia,” Arez said.

Lao closed his eyes.

“He would,” Arez insisted. “You know what they’re doing to us, right? They’re killing us! They’re trying to kill or brainwash all dainisa, to serve humans! So a lot of people wouldn’t mind the reverse happening to humans.”

“Arez,” Lao whimpered.

“Not me,” Arez said quickly. “I’m just saying. After everything they’ve done to us. But what’ve humans, or, um, non-magical humans, done to you?”

“Well, have you heard about the witch trials?”

“Yes, they were awful,” Lao said. “So they got witches and wizards too?”

“Yes, though those caught mostly managed to escape unharmed,” Dumbledore said. “Actually, truth be told, some enjoyed the experience.”

Lao’s jaw dropped. Arez found it easier not to react. Just to focus on Lao reacting.

“I’m kinkshaming,” Nova bluntly said.

“Is that, is that all?” Lao asked. “I mean. No offence. But the Australian government killed over a million dainisa in the past ten years. Every time we get caught, or try to expose ourselves because living a lie is exhausting, they kill us. That’s why we hide.” He leant across the table. “It sounds like you have a pretty sweet best of both worlds deal to me.”

“That’s not true at all,” Moody said. “Muggles are down right annoying.”

Lao stared.

“At least we agree it’s best to stay secret, right?” Mr Weasley said. “Wouldn’t it be annoying, Muggles asking for quick fixes to all their problems! Bless their souls, they do the best they can, of course, but —”

“I wouldn’t mind helping one with my magic if I knew they weren’t going to murder me for it,” Lao said flatly. “I don’t think lazily avoiding helping people is a reason to endure the trauma of living in a secret society, actually.”

A tense silence filled the room.

“I’m sorry,” Lao said, clearly not meaning it. “I only want to understand. You want us to blend in, don’t you?”

“That will be too much to ask,” Moody said.

“I didn’t ask for this,” Lao said. “None of us did. I want to keep Arez safe. Now that I know he exists, I would very much like to see this evil so-called lord defeated. This is obviously going to be difficult, so if you need a bargaining chip…” Lao gestured to his eyes. “I can see people’s souls. I can manipulate their souls. I can rip their souls to pieces, if I want. So if you want, I’ll kill him for you.”

“Lao!” Arez cried.

“An interesting offer,” Dumbledore said.

“Albus, you can’t be serious,” Mr Weasley said. “He’s a child.”

“I’m a child soldier,” Lao corrected. “And the princess of dainisa.”

“Is that really relevant,” Nova muttered.

“It’s always relevant,” Lao said. “I have a duty to protect dainisa. This would be nothing compared to what I’ve already given for that duty.”

“I don’t think it will be necessary,” Dumbledore said. “The road you are following is a dangerous one, Princess Yamaguchi. Perhaps being at Hogwarts as a normal student will be good for you.”

Lao stared at him. “You don’t know me.”

Nova snorted. “Yeah, it’ll be good for him.”

Lao glared. “Traitor.”

“You need to be treated less like a princess,” Nova flatly replied.

Lao rolled his eyes. “How can I not be what I am?”

Nova ignored him. “Listen. Professor Dumbledore. These two, they’re brats and they’re difficult because their lives have been complete constant shit and they dunno how to cope. So if you, hell, any of you are holding anything against them for being scared children confused by your frankly ridiculous world, I’m here, and I’m ready to fight you.”

It took Arez a moment to process that Nova actually just invited an elderly man to a fist-fight.

So, the meeting was going well.

“Of course the greatest sensitivity to both cultural difference and your difficult experiences in Australia will be paid,” Dumbledore said. “I assure you, nothing you have said will leave this room. You can share this information with whomever you please. What we, the Order of the Phoenix, need to know is that Voldemort wants Arez, a siren, who could be manipulated into committing unspeakable evils. As anyone could be.”

“Thank you,” Lao replied.

“We will be sheltering you here at Grimmauld Place for the next month, during which you will be educated about our community. Anything you wish to share about your own will be welcome. After which you will go to Hogwarts via train with the other students,” Dumbledore continued. “Now, what are your ages?”

“Almost fifteen,” Lao quickly replied.

“Sixteen,” Arez said, but his eyes were fixed on Nova. What would the answer be? Twenty or seventeen?

Instead of answering, Nova stared.

“He’s twenty-one,” Lao said.

Arez’s jaw dropped.

“Then, we shall enrol Lao and Arez in the fifth year,” Dumbledore concluded. “Nova, however, I’m not sure about…”

“Pixie, I’m younger than I told you,” Nova flatly said.

“What?” Lao gasped.

“I’m nineteen.”

“I knew it!” Arez cried.

“What,” Lao gasped. “Does Crow know?!”

Nova shrugged. “Probably.”

“Then, Nova, if you would like to continue your education in the seventh year, that is possible,” Dumbledore said.

“Fine,” Nova said. “Won’t it be hard to skip so many years, though?”

“I seem to remember you being quite the prodigy,” Dumbledore said.

Nova shrugged modestly.

“I didn’t think he was smart,” Arez said.

“I remembered the stars over Greece for you, didn’t I?” Nova said.

“Unrelated!” Arez squeaked, face heating. Again.

“Back on topic,” Lao said. “Are we going to have something like crash-courses in your magic?”

“Naturally,” Dumbledore replied. “First I must ask. Will the three of you swear to help the Order of the Phoenix in any and all ways you can?”

“Yes,” Lao immediately replied. “If it’ll keep Arez safe. Yes.”

“Lousy,” Arez hissed, elbowing him. Where had his sidekick’s sense gone? “What _is_ the Order? Are phoenixes real here? Is it a rebel group?”

“We are the leaders in the fight against Lord Voldemort,” Dumbledore explained, “and you’ll find the phoenixes are very much real.”

Considering his options, Arez nodded, before saying, “Yeah. I will.” He’d always wanted to try being in a rebellion group anyway.

“Uh-huh, you got me,” Nova agreed.

“Excellent,” Dumbledore replied. “For now, we’ll leave it there. I’m sure you’re all very exhausted, and we all have a lot of new information to process…” He turned to Arthur. “Could you make sure they’re taken to a room together?”

Arez would much rather alone with Lao, but wisely stayed silent. Maybe there’d only be two beds.


	3. I Don't Usually Do Chapters, Forget Chapter Titles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weasleys!! Diagon Alley!! Trauma!!! KRIS?!?!?

To Arez’s disappointment, there were three more than adequate beds set up in a row, with enough space to fit a person-and-a-half between. To his surprise, Lao immediately flopped down and ran his fingers through his fringe with an anguished groan.

“Please, no more melodrama,” Nova said, sitting on the end on Lao’s bed. “Seriously, what’s with you, Pixie? Normally you’re not that rude.”

“I’m angry!” Lao cried. “The way they just — _because ‘Muggles’ are annoying_?!”

“They are, though,” Arez said.

Lao groaned again louder.

Nova insisted, “They’re not bad people. They’re just idiots.”

Lao sat up. “Dumbledore was trying to read our souls.”

Nova looked surprised at that. “Seriously?”

Lao nodded. “In a really amateur way. But he was. So I read theirs. And what I saw only made me angrier.”

“It used to take so much to make you angry,” Nova said.

Lao rolled onto his side. “ _This_ is all so much.” He paused. “And you’re nineteen. You lied to me.”

“Yup,” Nova said. “Or, more like, I lied to Mathis then didn’t correct him when he told you.”

“Why?” Lao asked. “Why would you lie about that?”

Nova shrugged. “Made sense at the time.”

Lao closed his eyes. “I don’t know anything any more,” he said. “Not even my own brothers.”

“Don’t be so melodramatic,” Nova replied. “You still know me best. Still knew how I’d want my hair done, what clothes I’d want, all that.”

“I guess,” Lao said.

“You should take a nap,” Nova suggested. “ _I_ know you well enough to know you haven’t been sleeping again.”

Lao whined.

“Aré and I’ll look around the house, if ya want,” Nova said. “Y’know. Invisibly.”

Lao nodded.

Nova leant over, brushing Lao’s fringe back, and kissed him on the forehead. Lao made a strange noise (affectionate, maybe?) and nuzzled against the pillow.

It was weird for Arez. Very weird.

Nova stood up and looked at Arez like he knew what he was thinking. He probably did, after all the time he’d spent in Arez’s head.

‘ _C’mon_ ,’ Nova said in his head.

“You can still do that?!” Arez cried.

“Dammit Arez,” Lao groaned.

‘ _Yeah, looks like it. Thought I would, I mean, our eyes…’_

“…what about our eyes?”

‘ _Aré. Just think at me. For fuck’s sake._ ’

_Fine! What about our eyes!_

Slowly, Nova lifted back his hair. And Arez’s jaw dropped. Then he noticed Nova’s eyes, and it was even worse. One of Nova’s eyes was grey now. Not sapphire blue like it was supposed to be. Grey as a stormy sea, like Arez’s were supposed to be. Like they’d swapped eyes.

_Mine too?!_

Nova nodded.

And then Nova disappeared from sight.

‘ _Invisibility, dumbass, don’t scream. I did you too_. _No homo_.’

Arez lifted his arms, staring down at himself. To his surprise, he couldn’t _see himself_. Or he could, a little, at the edges. It was terrifying. And cool.

‘ _I’m gonna have to touch you_ ,’ Nova ‘said’. ‘ _Is that okay?_ ’

“Uh-huh.”

Arez felt a hand gently brush against his wrist, then close around it. Not tightly, very loosely. It was kind of nice, actually.

‘ _Okay. Let’s go_.’

They walked out into the hall, then down the left side. It was a very old house, dusty, dark, like something from a horror movie. They didn’t find anything interesting because all the doors were closed and Nova insisted other magical people would be put on edge by a door suddenly opening. Arez wasn’t so sure, but apparently Nova was smart.

‘ _Must be weird for you_ ,’ Nova suddenly thought. ‘ _Seeing that side of Lao_.’

Arez tried not to think about the cold princess he’d been exposed to.

‘ _He’s just scared_ ,’ Nova said.

It was a long time to be scared.

How could a big, magical house be so boring, Arez wondered? There were moving portraits on the walls, but the rest of the weird-looking stuff was such a wannabe haunted house level of lame. The wandered around, dodged a few old people in long robes, and headed back to the room. Nova cast off their invisibility, letting go of Arez’s arm.

“How can it be so boring?” Arez sighed.

“In real life, you should be happy when things are boring,” Nova replied. “Usually means they’re real.”

“What’s the point of living if it’s boring?”

Nova stared at him. “And you call Pixie emo.”

“He is,” Arez mumbled.

Nova sat on the bed closest to the wall, leaning against it. Arez stared at him, feeling a strange thing he couldn’t make sense of, until he stopped listening to his brain and walked over, sitting next to Nova.

“This is gonna be one hell of a detour, y’know,” Nova said.

“I don’t care,” Arez replied. “It’ll be longer with him.”

He’d never seen Lao sleep before. It was weird to be in a room while someone was sleeping, and it being his crush didn’t make that any different.

“I dunno why you like him so much,” Nova muttered. “He isn’t even that nice to you.”

Arez looked at Nova in surprise. “Well… well. He’s nicer than most people.”

“I know,” Nova replied. “And that’s just sad, Aré.”

Arez bit his lip. He looked away, back towards Lao. Then he pulled his hair over his face.

“Sorry,” Nova sighed.

Neither of them said anything else. Nova got bored and dug a book out from his trunk of magic. Arez stared at the pages through his hair, but it was hard to read. In his mind, he played over the song he’d written, reminding himself: this was a temporary relief. It was a bad idea. It would be so hard to go back to Australia. But they had to do it. Because Lao said so.

In the afternoon, Lao suddenly woke up. He sprung straight out of bed (which was weird) and started fixing his hair (which was normal). Arez quickly tossed back his own hair before Lao thought anything weird was going on.

“Hey,” Nova said. “You feelin’ any better?”

“Uh-huh.” Lao looked towards the eastern corner of the room. “I feel like something is going to happen soon, though.”

Nova snorted. “Because you’re so well-known for your foresight.”

“Don’t be a dick,” Lao said. “Did you find anything out?”

“Wizards are boring!” Arez cried. “So are their dumb houses.”

“So not much,” Lao concluded. He turned towards the door. “We’ll find out more soon. I can see that they’re talking about us.”

Lao and his stupid soul-eyes.

“D’ya wanna go out and talk to them?” Nova asked.

“No, I want to avoid it for as long as possible,” Lao replied. “Am I being immature?”

Arez stared in surprise. Who the hell asked a question like that?

“Not really,” Nova replied. “I’m guessing they’ll come up here sooner or later, and it’s better you calm down.”

Lao groaned. “But it’s _haaard_.”

“Ah, yup, there it is, now you’re being immature.”

Lao smiled at him. _What the hell_. He sat back down on the edge of the bed.

“Did you remember anything about this school to tell us?” Lao asked.

“Not really,” Nova replied. “One time Crow cried because he couldn’t figure out how to get his portable TV to work there. The magic messes with electronics, or something.”

“That sounds convenient,” Arez said.

“And like it should be easy enough to fix,” Lao said.

“They hate technology,” Nova recalled. “They don’t even use fuckin’ pens.”

“What?” Arez gasped. “But — but what do they use instead?!”

“Quills.”

“ _Echidna quills_? You can write with those?! What the fuck!”

Nova laughed. “Nah, nah, y’know those fountain pens with feathers on them? They’re called quills.”

Arez glared suspiciously. “Leave echidnas alone.” Then it dawned on him. “Hey, fountain pens are stupid, right? We should take a bunch of _real_ pens and sell them to people.”

“It would be a lot more convenient for them,” Lao mused. “Imagine having to write an entire essay with a quill.”

“It was the worst,” Nova said. “You’d get like, a sentence, then have to refill.”

Lao rolled his eyes. “ _Why_ don’t they use pens?”

“They really hate muggles.”

Lao looked at Arez with a smirk. “Well, Arez, get on their level. No more pens. No more TV. And best of all, no more _Naruto_.”

“Fuck off, _Naruto_ is the proof humans are capable of basic decency if they really try!” Arez cried.

“I think it’s actually proof of the opposite.”

“Don’t be an asshole just because you don’t understand the _amazement_ —”

“Yeah, yeah, you love cartoons, we get it,” Nova said.

“Anime isn’t cartoons! It’s art!”

Lao was laughing. _What the fuck_. “Why aren’t you and Crow best friends?”

Arez couldn’t answer, he was too confused. Which was a very difficult thing to achieve.

“I don’t know how either of you are gonna cope at this stupid school,” Nova said, which was _very_ reassuring. “But Aré? At least don’t do your usual ‘I’m gay so I aggressive hate women’ thing. We get it, you’re overcompensating cos you’re scared of being gay, now quit it. Or you’ll get your arse kicked. A lot.”

“What?! I — shut up, my opinions are real and legitimate and —”

“I could kick your arse right now,” Lao reminded him.

“YOU were the one who told me to say what I think!”

“I’m taking it back.”

Arez fumed.

“Seriously,” Nova said firmly. “You don’t have Athena to protect you here. And we’re not gonna do it.”

“When has Athena _ever_ protected me?!” Arez cried. “What’re you —?”

“You seriously didn’t know she talks everyone down from kicking your arse?” Lao asked. “Well. Not Jon.”

“Jon is a _whiny bitch_.”

“He’s not the only one.”

“Yeah, _princess_ , you are a whiny —”

Lao grabbed his arm and hissed, “Do you _really_ want to call me that?”

Arez shut up.

They talked vaguely about Hogwarts for a while, but there wasn’t much to tell. Nova pulled out his old books and showed them a bit, but it all sounded annoyingly Latin to Arez.

Eventually, there was a knock at the door. Lao slid off the bed and answered. Weird, Arez had expected Nova to do that, but Nova was tense beside him. A short and fat woman with bright red hair poked her head in, looking at Lao with surprise.

“Oh my, dear, you’re even prettier than Arthur said,” she remarked. “I should warn you, three of my sons are here. Of course I try to teach them how to behave around a lady but you know how boys will be boys.”

“I’m not really a lady, I don’t think?” Lao looked uncertainly back at Nova. “Am I?”

“No,” Nova replied, “just a princess.”

The woman laughed like it was a joke but Lao looked genuinely confused. “Well. I’m Arthur’s wife, you can call me Mrs Weasley. We’re just getting dinner ready if you’d like to join us.”

“Sure,” Lao said. “Thank you for inviting us.”

Lao left the room first. Nova nudged Arez, who flicked his hair back and followed. He was sure he must’ve looked dramatic as hell, maybe dramatically gorgeous enough to draw a ‘you’d sure make my teenage sons turn gay’ comment? But Mrs Weasley didn’t say anything. She looked at them with some strange look in her eyes.

‘ _It’s called pity_ , _Aré_.’

Arez pulled a face.

“You certainly need feeding up,” Mrs Weasley said. “Any allergies? Or vegetarians?”

“Nope,” Lao said. Then he looked back at Arez. “Oh, wait, Arez is allergic to raw tomatoes. Not when they’re cooked, I never figured out why.”

Arez stared at Lao in disbelief. “How’d you know that?”

Lao frowned. “You told me? Didn’t you?”

Arez knew he’d never admit a weakness to Lao. Maybe Lao had been spying on his soul and saw it there.

“Well that’s easy enough to handle,” Mrs Weasley said. She started to lead them down to the stairs. “Have you seen much of the place? Arthur was a bit vague, he was in a rush, I’m afraid.”

“Just our room, we were pretty tired,” Lao replied. They started down the stairs. “Do you know much about our situation?”

“I know You-Know-Who is after you and you’re going to Hogwarts for protection, which is exactly right, children should be in school,” Mrs Weasley said.

“Not all schools,” Arez mumbled.

Lao glanced back at him and actually smiled in amusement.

“We’re also not used to your type of magic, so sorry if I’m a bit inquisitive,” Lao replied. “In our culture we don’t use wands. Or gender, actually.”

“How bizarre,” Mrs Weasley said.

They turned and entered the same room they’d been in before. So they had meetings in a kitchen? How uncool.

There was a bustle of people in the kitchen, too. Arez didn’t take in much before his head started to spin and he accidentally stepped on Nova’s foot, but there were eight of them. Mostly redheaded teenagers who all looked bigger than him. All of them looked at them strangely. It made Arez want to pull his hair back over his face. But he didn’t. Especially because Lao stepped forward, casual and calm, and said in a warm voice, “Hi. I’m Lao, this is Arez, and that’s my brother Nova. Yes, we’re really brothers, and we know we don’t look at all similar. Thank you for helping protect us, and thank you for going further and inviting us to join you. We’ll do everything we can to help fight You-Know-Who in return.”

Silence. Then, a confused voice blurted, “Hang on, brothers? Are you a _boy_?”

“ _Ron_!”

Lao’s eye twitched. He drew in a deep breath, looking back at Nova questioningly. All of a sudden Arez realised Lao got so angry about the question because he didn’t understand it. Nova shrugged slightly and Lao quickly looked back, replying:

“I don’t know? In my native culture and language we don’t use that… stuff. Call me whatever you want, it doesn’t make sense to me anyway.”

And now _they_ all looked confused, _especially_ the adults. Again, Arez thought, no wonder Lao gets so angry.

Nova said, “’S not a problem for the rest of us, Arez and I were raised mostly by humans. But for Lao, well, it’s easy. Just use male pronouns. Y’know, he? Him? Then feminine titles, like, miss. Ms. Princess. Princess is the big one. It’s only confusin’ if you make it confusin’, actually.”

Lao mumbled incoherently, turning back towards Nova in embarrassment.

“That’s fine dear, isn’t it?” Mrs Weasley said. She glared around the room and said again, with more force, “ _Isn’t it_.”

“Absolutely”, “sure”, “fine”, rang around the room and a few mumbles about being tolerant of ‘weird other cultures’.

“Come on, let’s eat,” Mrs Weasley said. “There’s spaces here, next to my daughter Ginny, you can sit here.”

Despite that probably having been humiliating as hell, Lao still sat next to the stranger. Nova ushered Arez in to sit next to him, then sat at the end. The girl actually smiled at him. Weird.

“Now then, that’s my son Fred, or is it George, no it’s Fred, George is next to him, they’re twins you can see. Then it’s Ron, his friend Hermione Granger, Nymphadora Tonks —”

“Just Tonks,” the pink-haired thing said.

“— my son Bill, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black, this is his house, by the way.”

“Thank you for hosting us, then,” Lao said.

“Least I can do,” Sirius bitterly replied.

The food was brought out. Arez had never seen so much food in his life. Which was actually extremely worrying when he thought about it, since he _did_ go to a boarding school disguised prison with a hundred other people. It made Arez’s head spin even more, and he could barely breathe, and then Mrs Weasley asked him questions about food, and he couldn’t think, he couldn’t even process what was there, all he could think was: _there’s enough food that there’s options_ and _they’re actually giving me a choice?_ and his mind hurt so much he thought he might cry.

But Nova answered for him. Then flatly said, “He’s just shy, don’t worry.”

Lao snorted.

And then Arez was faced with roast chicken, potatoes, broccoli, peas, carrots, and other such things he hadn’t been faced with since he was about 9.

It was a tense meal. That Arez was used to. As he calmed down, he paid more attention to details, like how huge Hermione Granger’s hair was, how ginger all the gingers were, how attractive their so-called host was… kinda Byronic.

“I love your hair,” Ginny said to Lao at once point.

“Oh, um, thanks.”

“Do you have to colour it to get it so bright?”

Lao shook his head. “No, it just, grows this way. We don’t have very good shampoo or anything like that where we’re from, so I actually wash it with olive oil and soap. Apparently that’s good for it?”

“Huh, I wouldn’t’ve guessed,” Ginny said. She leant forward slightly and said to Arez, “The length of your hair though, that’s just amazing. It’s about how long I’m trying to grow mine out to, actually.”

“…okay?” Arez said. “Don’t cut it?”

“Oh, are you an emo?” Ginny asked.

Arez’s jaw dropped. Beside him, Nova started shaking with silent laughter. He clapped a hand over his mouth as Arez shrieked, “No! I’m not at all emo! My hair is also genetically like this!”

“Well, you do cut in that style,” Lao pointed out, smirking.

“Emo’s a legit life choice,” Ginny said. “I mean, a bit 2006, but there’s this full-on emo in my dorm at Hogwarts. Are you coming to Hogwarts? Mum said you were.”

“Yeah, we’re coming to Hogwarts,” Lao replied. He elbowed Arez, but not painfully. “Come on, get over the shock. It was bound to happen sometime.”

Arez huffed in irritation.

“Sorry,” Ginny said, smirking. “Hope you guys are in Gryffindor. It’s the most interesting house.”

“It’s the best house,” her brother, Ron, supplied from across the table.

“How do we find out what house we’re in?” Lao asked. He gestured towards Nova. “He was at Hogwarts and dropped out, he said something about a hat, but I think my dear brother is messing with me.”

“He’s not,” Hermione said. “The Sorting Hat was created by Hogwarts’ four founders to sort new students in their houses after they died. They all taught with different principles so they wanted student who believed in those principles.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Lao said, sounding relieved.

“How did they make a hat think,” Arez said flatly.

“It’s enchanted.”

Arez fought the urge to groan. So now magic could make _hats alive_.

Lao glanced at him and said, “I’m guessing it’s like what I did with the dragon toy.”

“ _That_ didn’t make sense either.”

Lao rolled his eyes. “Arez was raised by a chemistry researcher.”

“What’s a chemistry?” Ron scoffed.

“It’s a bit like Potions,” Hermione explained.

Arez narrowed his eyes. He’d have to see about that. And hate whoever taught him Potions.

“We haven’t been taught magic like you have,” Lao started to explain, “we do it, quite differently. Usually one specific type of magic without wants. Oh, but, we know we can do your type, too. Nova’s done it before, when he went to Hogwarts.”

“For about a year,” Nova said.

“And then you dropped out?” Hermione asked. It had probably been a mistake to let her talk to them, Arez was realising. She’d just kept asking questions. Like Athena used to. “How come?”

“Family I was living with moved,” Nova said. It was probably a lie. “I was in Gryffindor, I know that’s what counts to you lot.”

“That isn’t all that counts,” Ginny said as Ron said, “Hells yeah!”

“Is it a problem if we’re not in Gryffindor?” Lao asked.

“Only if you’re in Slytherin,” Ron said.

“Don’t turn them against houses already, Ron!” Ginny cried.

“Well, they’re all gits, aren’t they.”

One of the twins leant across Ron, arm flat on the table as he got as close to Lao as he could and said, “Just gotta say, if you’re in Slytherin, you’re still welcome to slither in my bed any time, Princess.”

“Oh my god Fred,” Ginny groaned. “Sit back down, you’re embarrassing yourself.”

“Yes, you are,” Lao flatly replied. He turned so he couldn’t see Fred any more. “What are the other houses?”

“Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw,” Hermione said.

“Duffers and nerds,” Ron translated.

“What’s a duffer?” Lao asked, sounding more American than ever.

“An idiot,” Nova said.

Which hadn’t been Arez’s guess, actually, because he’d heard it linked to cows. Maybe cows were all stupid and that’s where it came from?

“Oh, well, I might be a Hufflepuff then,” Lao said. “Blonde thing, you know.”

There was a long silence in which Arez just knew Lao was daring any of them to say ‘but you’re Asian! Asians are smart according to racism, so, doesn’t that cancel it out?!’

Nova jumped in to say, “Mathis was a Ravenclaw.”

“That’s our other brother,” Lao explained. “He’s too old and in eternal employment to go to Hogwarts.”

“It’s not really all about being smart, it’s about wanting to learn,” Ginny said. “And Hufflepuffs are actually really sweet. And Slytherins are the most fun if you get the right ones.”

“Where have you been hanging out with Slytherins?” Ron growled.

“Oh, grow up, Ron.”

“We’re going to have to catch up on classes after we get wands,” Lao said, like he was only just realising. “Can you tell us anything about them?”

That filled a lot of time, and was something Arez actually cared about. Their magic sounded more classic mythological witches and wizards than X-men like dainisan magic. Transfiguration sounded most interesting, Astronomy the most normal, Care of Magical Creatures the most Lao-like, and everybody hated the Potions teacher. Of course.

Then Mrs Weasley brought out dessert and Arez had a minor existential crisis so bad he forgot to breathe.

“Sorry,” Lao said quickly, as Nova grabbed Arez’s arm and dragged him out to the hall.

“It’s just Banoffee pie,” Mrs Weasley said.

Nova shut the door behind him. “Come on. Deep breath. Hold it. Now let it out. That’s it. Now again.”

Nova directed him calmly until Arez remembered how to breathe on his own. Somewhere along the line Arez ended up slumped against Nova, his forehead on Nova’s shoulder. Nova didn’t touch him though. Arez was relieved and grateful.

“I know it’s weird and horrible,” Nova said, “and I know it’s unfair how much they have that you’ve never even thought anyone could have. And it’s even worse because they take it for granted.”

Arez nodded.

“That’s just the way the world is. It doesn’t make sense. It isn’t fair. And it never makes sense how unfair it is.”

“Don’t talk like you’re old,” Arez mumbled. “You’re only nineteen.”

Arez looked up. Nova was smiling at him.

“I know it anyway,” Arez said. “Intellectually. I don’t know why I…” He couldn’t say it. If he said it, he was making it real. And he was already too close to that just having it be acknowledged by Nova.

“Would that be so bad?” Nova asked.

Arez pulled away entirely.

“Sorry,” Nova said quickly. “I just, know how you think. How could I not by now.”

Arez didn’t know what to say, think or do.

The door opened again. Lao slipped out, frowning slightly.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “Uh. Wanna go back to our room?”

Finally. Someone telling him what to do. Arez nodded.

“We’re going to get our wands tomorrow,” Lao explained as they went back up. “There’s this special place where we can shop for them. A special street of magical shops. Hidden. In London.”

Arez barely registered the words.

When he reached their room, Arez lay down on his bed. It took him a moment to remember to at least take off his shoes. He pulled the blanket over himself and tried to sleep. But the weight of all the food he’d eaten kept his eyes open for hours as his mind tried to work again.

*

Next morning, Lao rose with the sun and went straight down to the kitchen. He couldn’t stand to be in a room where Arez was sleeping for longer than necessary, he needed to clear his mind, needed to get the scent of cherry blossoms out of his nostrils… To his amazement, he wasn’t alone. Mrs Weasley was there in a fluffy dressing gown, and surprised to see him.

“Oh, hello, Lao dear,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting you up for a while…”

“I always get up early,” Lao shrugged, meaning he had gotten sick of sitting up wide-awake. “Would you like some help?”

Mrs Weasley positively beamed. “I’d love it.”

For a few moments, they worked in silence. Lao had been left having to explain why Arez freaked out at a pie, and he’d wanted to lie, but he couldn’t. His mind was too slow and useless to think of a lie in a crisis. Lao knew enough about Arez’s preferences to know any genuine expression of emotion was weakness, and any weakness was bad. Sometimes Lao wondered if Arez even knew where the lies ended and he begun.

“This must be very difficult for you,” Mrs Weasley said.

Lao looked at the toaster and decided to stay silent.

Mrs Weasley continued, “Albus didn’t tell us where exactly you were from. He certainly didn’t tell us the kind of conditions you’d been living in.”

Lao softly said, “I didn’t live in it for long. Only a couple of months. Before that I was in Canada. There’s nothing too bad going on there. As far as I know. Nova and Arez lived there for three years. Well, no, Arez grew up in the war, so I guess, he lived on rations from when he was six.” Lao frowned. “No. That’s right. They only gave rations to — to what you’d call muggles. They wouldn’t sell food to anyone who didn’t have a ration card. They made it illegal.”

Mrs Weasley simply absorbed this as she tended to the eggs.

“I didn’t live it,” Lao said. “And even if I had, I would’ve been… in a better situation than Arez. I forget that sometimes. I forget how rough he’s had it.”

Because all Lao could focus on when he was faced with an Arez who didn’t leer down at him through a Maybelline war mask was how he actually stood a chance against him. How he could hurt this Arez before being hurt.

To survive seeing Arez every day, Lao had had to suppress everything that was not fury. And in doing so, he made himself a monsters, and not even one who was strong enough to defeat Ookami. Just bitter, spiteful and petty.

Lao said, “Please don’t mention it to him. He’ll get upset.”

“I won’t, then. But if there’s anything I can do to make this easier for you three, you let me know, won’t you?”

“I’ll try,” Lao said, all the while thinking ‘if you people hide out of laziness, why would you ever help anyone?’

“Good. Take over the eggs for a moment, dear, I’ve got to get the bacon.”

Lao did as he was told. He stared at the eggs thinking, Arez would get used to this kind of luxury. He’d seen it before.

About a half-hour later, the other witches and wizards started to emerge, yawning and rubbing at their eyes. Hermione was the exception, and gazed at Lao with a hunger for knowledge. Lao made a mental note to be extremely careful around her. Even with the stupidest of people, the desire for knowledge can be incredibly dangerous, and she didn’t seem remotely stupid. This just made it even more complicated. In hindsight, he maybe should’ve played up an inability to speak English.

“Should you get your brother, dear?” Mrs Weasley asked.

“No, they’ll come when they’re ready,” Lao replied. He stopped himself from (bitterly) adding, ‘He’s better at controlling Arez anyway.’

Mrs Weasley left the room for only a moment. And that was all it took for the more annoying of those damn twins to slide up behind Lao and say, “Hey. How you doin’ today?”

“Very not interested in anything you have to say.”

“Cold,” he said, grinning. “I could warm you up.”

Lao stared him directly in the eye. He held up his right hand between them, pulling the sleeve of his jumped down to his elbow. And then, before the idiot could say anything else, Lao concentrated his magic until his hand was engulfed in blue flames.

“Holy shit!” he cried, leaping back.

Lao rotated his wrist slightly. The flames disappeared. As usual, he was unscathed. “I’d say I’m too hot for you to handle.”

As the idiot said ‘ _damn_ ’, Lao stepped around him. The others looked surprised too.

“You — you’re not hurt?” Ginny asked.

“You did that without a wand?!” Hermione cried.

“I’m not human,” Lao explained, “I’m a dainisa.”

His species clearly meant nothing to any of them. Lao sat at the table all the same, like that didn’t bother him.

“What’s a dainisa?” Hermione asked. Of course. “I haven’t heard of them before, they’re not in any of our textbooks.”

“I don’t know how to explain it, I’ve barely known any non-dainisa,” Lao said thoughtfully. “I’ve heard my brothers say we’re like X-men. If that means anything to any of you.”

“It does to me,” Hermione said. She turned to the others and explained, “They look human and are a similar species but their magic works differently so they have powers like what Lao just did with fire.”

“Which was hot,” the idiot said.

“I already made that joke,” Lao said dismissively. To Hermione, he said, “We’re probably going to need your help a lot. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” Hermione said. “Especially if it’s revision for school, I have to do that anyway.”

Ron rolled his eyes in a way that clearly meant, ‘this is the geek, learning is not a normal desire’.

Nova entered the room, dressed in the usual trench coat and leather pants (edge lord), and dragging a yawning Arez by the hand. Arez’s hair hung freely, and Lao noted with a twinge of fear that it was almost to the siren’s hip.

“S’up,” Nova casually greeted.

“Apparently we’re getting wands today,” Lao replied.

“Mm… gettin’ w’at?” Arez sleepily inquired.

“ _Wands_ , Aré.”

Rubbing his eyes, Arez murmured, “Shotgun Gandalf.”

“…what?”

Gently, Nova shoved Arez into a seat. “He means, ‘ _I’m callin’ my wand Gandalf cos I’m a loser_ ’.”

Lao giggled.

“Knights use to name their swords!” Arez defensively cried.

“That seems extremely insecure.”

That got Arez sulking again, and he only stopped when Nova reached over and carefully tied back his hair, muttering, “Better get ready, Aré.”

Arez blushed and mumbled, “I’m always ready.”

Despite himself, Lao smiled.

Breakfast wasn’t particularly eventful. The witches and wizards were still uncomfortable around them, probably more so. Maybe it’d been a bit much for Lao to set himself on fire. Oh well. The only adult other than Mrs Weasley was the house owner, who looked very broody and resentful. Maybe because his name was Serious?

After breakfast, Mrs Weasley decided they’d go straight to ‘Diagon Alley’, the wizard shopping district. Or was it just the one street? Why limit it to just that if they could hide houses, like this one they were in?

“Oh, but not with me, dear,” Mrs Weasley said. “No, no, I’d stand out a bit much… Dumbledore’s sending someone…”

And then she wouldn’t tell him who. For no good reason. And just when Lao had been starting to think maybe there was an adult he could trust.

Their guide was the especially pale white man, probably in his late 30s or early 40s, who they’d been introduced to at dinner. Remus Lupin. His clothes were extremely worn and hair greying from brown, but he looked friendly enough.

“Hello,” he said, “Professor Dumbledore sent me to help you today. Well, not just today, I’ll be helping you catch up over the next few weeks, too.”

“Hi,” Lao said, used to Nova’s silence and getting used to Arez’s. “Um. Thanks for helping us. And sorry if we ask too many questions.”

Lupin smiled at them. “What’s the problem with eager students?”

Beside him, Arez’s shoulders relaxed slightly. Lao had never noticed how tense he got around teachers before.

They followed Lupin out onto the street. When he glanced back, Lao saw Nova hanging protectively close to Arez. Good, he thought, and walked a bit faster to be more in step with Lupin.

“Are you a teacher at Hogwarts?” he asked.

Wrong place to start, he quickly realised. “I was. I resigned around two years ago.”

“I’ve never really been to a proper school before,” Lao said, too quickly and not thinking with the dignity of his position, his mother would say, “I went to a Muggle school in Canada for a couple of months. That’s why I speak English with this accent. Well, it’s a bit more Australian now, I guess, but the school in Australia wasn’t actually a school. I’ll try to make it more British. I lived in London before, I had a tutor here. But he wasn’t a real teacher.”

“I hope I can find an effective way to teach you, then,” Lupin replied. His patience made it hard not to smile. “You see that pub across the street?”

Lao looked. He wasn’t entirely sure what a pub was, but he did see a building that looked so deliberately small and grubby it had to be something special. “Yes.”

“That’s the Leaky Cauldron. We’ll have to go through to the back to get into Diagon Alley.”

Nova asked, “Is it crowded?”

Lao frowned slightly. Nova didn’t do well around strangers, but he’d never had trouble being in a crowd before.

“At this time of day, probably not.”

They went inside. The man behind the bar had no teeth. People didn’t pay much attention to them, which was more surprisingly than refreshing. Usually even when surrounded by humans Lao would turn heads through beauty alone. Which was to say nothing of the jaws Nova dropped.

Lupin gave a curt nod to the barman, walking quickly through the bar towards the courtyard. He didn’t want to be there. And the people glaring at him over their breakfast didn’t want him there, either. Maybe that was why they weren’t getting the usual reaction?

Whatever the reason, Lao started to doubt Lupin a little bit when he led them to a brick wall. Quickly, he pulled his wand from his robes and tapped a brick. The brick pulled back, then another, and another, until an archway was forming before them. Behind it was a narrow pedestrian street, old cobblestones and crowded. In design, the shops were the olden-timiest you could get in London, with swinging signs hanging over the doors and everything.

“Places like this really exist?!” Arez gasped.

“Diagon Alley’s been the centre of the British magical community since the fourth century when Ollivander’s wand shop opened,” Lupin said. “Of course if you need to exchange money, we’ll have to go to the bank Gringotts first.”

“We have money,” Nova said. When Lao looked at him he explained in Dainisan, “Mathis left it in my trunk.”

“Then let’s get your wands.”

It was hard to walk through without getting distracted. Everything was so bright, lively, and there were owls everywhere! Robes were hard to dodge around but all the different colours and fabrics were distracting in of themselves. Nova had to grab Lao and drag him away from the bookstore, which was even more embarrassing when Lupin said, “We’ll go there next, don’t worry.”

Ollivander’s was at the end of the alley. Arez ran slightly ahead as they approached, the way his ponytail billowed behind him bringing up all kinds of memories that could-have-been as Lao restrained himself from doing the same.

“Good morning,” a soft voice said as they entered.

Lao had never seen such an old-looking person out of movies. It stunned him into accidental rudeness.

“Good morning Mr Ollivander,” Lupin said. “I’ve got two Hogwarts transfer students in need of new wands.”

“Transfer students? Now I haven’t heard that for almost two decades,” Mr Ollivander said, eyes scanning over them. His eyes locked with Nova’s. “Ah. Mr Jalanis. Yew, fourteen and a half inches, phoenix feather core, wasn’t it?”

“Yep,” Nova said in a way Lao alone understood as ‘hell if I know’.

“Still working all right, is she?”

Nova pulled his wand from a pocket. Mr Ollivander took it, examining it at the end of his fingertips.

“Hmm. Not been used for a while, I see.”

“I had to stop going to Hogwarts and didn’t really have a chance to take it with me to Australia,” Nova explained.

Mr Ollivander spun the wand slightly. A shower of sparks fell from it. He handed it back. “No matter, it’s still in excellent condition. Shouldn’t take you too long to get used to each other.”

“Each other?” Arez muttered.

Mr Ollivander’s eyes flickered to Arez. “Why, yes. After all, it’s the wand that chooses the wizard, Mr…?”

“Smythe. Which is said like the boring Smith but spelt S-M-Y-T-H-E. Cos of the —”

“Silent e,” Lao and Nova finished as one.

“Well, let’s start with you then, Mr Smythe. Which is your wand hand?”

“I’m left-handed.”

A tape measure started moving on its own, like by telekinesis, measuring Arez’s arms, legs, so on, while Arez stood tense.

“Our wands are each unique with a powerful magical substance as a core. We have found the most effective cores are unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons.”

“What?” Arez gasped. “Those are all real? And —“ He looked at Nova. “Dragon hearts?!”

Nova rolled his eyes.

“Yes, Mr Smythe, they’re real,” Mr Ollivander said. A box lowered itself from the shelves and approached them. “All right, let’s try this. Ash, unicorn hair core, ten inches. Bendy. Give it a wave.”

Arez did. Mr Ollivander snatched it away almost immediately. Another box descended, but that wand wasn’t right either. Five more attempts went by until Mr Ollivander selected a wand with an ornately carved handle and declared it to be, “Cherry. Dragon heartstring core. Eleven and a half inches. Quite bendy.”

When Arez flicked it that time, it unleashed a shower of golden sparks.

“Yes, yes, excellent,” Mr Ollivander said. “This is a particularly powerful combination, Mr Smythe. You must have exceptional strength of mind to have been chosen by this wand. Now you must use it with restraint but purpose.”

Lao shoved that thought out of his mind. And far away from things that could-have-been, with a husband dragging his wife (bound by purple ribbons) to a bed that eternally smelt of that cherry blossom bath wash.

“And now it is your turn, Miss…?”

“Yamaguchi,” Lao said, eager for the distraction. “I’m right-handed.” He held the hand out, staying closely focused on the tape-measure.

It took him even longer than Arez. Lao managed to stay wholly focused, but the problem was (apparently) that the wands all reacted equally to him. He could make any of the shoot sparks, or move objects even, but none of them were the ‘fit’ Mr Ollivander expected.

“I’m quite certain we have a phoenix feather user on our hand here,” Mr Ollivander said pleasantly. “Don’t you worry, Miss Yamaguchi. We’ll find your match yet.”

It was a phoenix feather wand in the end. A small black one of ebony, nine and ¾ inches, that bend nicely when Lao flicked it and send warmth flooding down his hand. It felt normal, like using his magic as naturally intended, not using it despite circumstances.

“There we have it,” Mr Ollivander said, smiling. “A tough customer is always most rewarding to serve, in the end. Quite a fitting combination as well, Miss Yamaguchi; phoenix feather wands are hardest to master, but no matter. That ebony tells me all I need to know about your determination.”

“Enoby,” Nova mumbled behind him. Maybe that was Greek for something?

“Thank you,” Lao said, face feeling warm. “I have a question. If you remember Nova,” (he inclined his head slightly towards his brother just to be sure) “then do you remember my other brother? Mathis Eastman?”

“Ah, yes,” Mr Ollivander said. “A very talented young man, I seem to recall. Managed to perform a levitation spell right away with his wand. Poplar, fourteen and a half inches, unyielding, with a unicorn hair core. One from the same unicorn who gave a hair for Mr Jalanis’ wand, as a matter of fact.”

“Thanks,” Lao said. “I just wondered, he doesn’t, talk much about the past any more.”

“Quite all right,” Mr Ollivander said. “I remember every wand I’ve ever sold. That is the joy with which I make them. Speaking of selling… that will be seven galleons each.”

Nova pulled out a pouch of money and paid in large golden coins. Arez continued to stare at his wand in wonder. Watching him, Lao slipped his own carefully into his inside jacket pocket.

“It’s always exciting to get your first wand,” Lupin said. “Now then. I promised you the bookstore, didn’t I, Lao?”

The bookstore was the largest shop in Diagon Alley (the bank obviously didn’t count) and it _bigger on the inside_. Lupin told them the books they’d need, mostly boring sounding things about standard spells, which Nova promised to take care of so Lao slipped through and tried to find anything good. Textbooks were boring, but history books were okay, and he’d need to read about the cultural practices of the magical world, too. There was an entire section for ‘Muggle-borns’, which pained Lao to identify with, but he _had_ been raised more exposed to human culture than — whatever this was. The fiction section was harder to find, but he got there eventually. And was only dragged away by Nova muttering in Dainisan about what a bad influence those romance novels about vampires, werewolves and angels were. He managed to get _two_ , which was a start.

“I’m interested in learning how their portrayals of fiction are altered by their societal practices,” Lao smoothly justified.

“Oh, shut up, no you’re not, you just wanna swoon over muscles and cheekbones,” Nova said. Mercifully in Dainisan.

“That’ll do for now,” Lupin said, eyeing the bulging bags of books. “You’ll get your list of books for your respective years at Hogwarts soon and we’ll have to come back. You’ll have to get robes fitted then, too.”

“That’s fine,” Lao said. He looked over his shoulder at the others. “Right?”

“Yes, I’m bored,” Arez huffed. “I wanna learn magic already!”

As they started to walk back to the Leaky Cauldron, something familiar caught Lao’s eye. It was a flash of ash blond hair, a glimpse of far too green eyes, and it made him freeze and turn around.

A lanky blond, scrawny and far too pale, even for a white person. Long cotton gloves covered his arms, disappearing under the short sleeves of his hooded top. It took Lao a moment to process the girl standing there, talking animated, with the same ash blonde hair, the same too green eyes, but not too pale, just, normal sun-intolerant white person pale. She wasn’t familiar. But Lao would never forget the first person. It was Kris Jeehl, leader of the rebellion. Kris, bordering on sixteen, with the twin sister Lao only knew ( _could have known_ , he reminded himself) as ‘dead’.

“Pixie?” Nova asked. “What’s up?”

Lao looked up at his brother. “It’s, it’s Kris Jeehl.” It came out in Dainisan, thankfully.

Nova frowned. “Should I know who that is?”

“He’s the leader of the rebellion, he should be in Australia, and his sister…” Lao trailed off. “Maybe it’s not. But it looks just like…”

Like something Lao couldn’t focus on enough to safely use soul magic to investigate.

Nova’s frown became worried. “Pixie. The leader of the rebellion is a 32-year-old Vietnamese-Australian called Justin Lê.”

“No, Kris definitely led the rebellion from when he was fourteen, and he’s Arez’s age, so —”

Lao trailed off and watched as a man left the store across the street. He had the same hair as them, the same skin colour as the sister. Was it their father? Kris’ head lowered until he stared at the ground. His twin loudly said, in a voice that was wholly British, “Finally! C’mon Dad, you promised we’d look at brooms.”

“I did, didn’t I,” their father replied. He dropped a hand to Kris’ shoulder. “Why so mopey, Krissy?”

“I’m not moping. Let’s just go already.”

There was only a small trace of Australia in Kris’ voice, yet it was definitely Kris’ voice all the same. Lao had heard it enough times to know.

Kris turned and walked away quickly. His twin ran after him, talking loudly. Then the father too.

“Pixie?” Nova said again. “You’re worrying me. A lot.”

“I need to talk to Crow,” Lao murmured. He turned back to Lupin and Arez, trying not to shake. “Sorry,” he said, smiling. “I thought I recognised him. Not sure. Anyway, we’ve got to get back and make a start, right?”

Nova hung close to him the entire walk. Lao was glad. He kept thinking he was going to faint. Because there was no way Kris Jeehl could be in London’s secret witches and wizards shopping district without something terrifying going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what a happy way to end this for all you who've read babylon :)
> 
> "but when will the HP characters start acting in character?" you ask, as i run off in the sunset, pretending i can't hear


	4. The Wizard Messiah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lots of trauma & gender talk in this scotch egg quality chapter

****Lupin was okay, for a teacher. He wasn’t patronising or mean and he called Arez a genius after he managed to levitate something. Well, okay, he didn’t say ‘genius’ but it was implied. Until Lao did every spell perfectly first try.

“I’ve had to use magic every day since I was three, it’s no wonder, they always taught me how to control it,” Lao bragged in a fake attempt at modesty. He then added, “We use gems, sometimes, to channel magic, it’s a bit like that I guess.”

 _Nova_ made it worse by throwing an arm around Lao’s shoulders and saying, “Look at my little brother, trying to downplay being a prodigy genius. Cute, isn’t he?”

“But how can he be a prodigy genius if he’s so stupid,” Arez said.

For some reason Nova called him a dickhead. Whatever. Arez was right.

Even after Lupin left so they could rest, Arez wouldn’t put his wand away. Back in their room, he was spinning it around as he read, or flicking it to hear the lovely swishing sound. Lao was also rather fixated with his, but wasn’t showing the same childish obsession; he simply clasped it tightly as he read ‘ _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_ ’ at a surprisingly swift pace. Whenever Arez tried to strike up a conversation, he was ignored completely, so the siren started to sulkily read one of Nova’s old textbooks himself.

“He gets like that,” Nova said with a nod to Lao, perhaps trying to be reassuring for once. “Can’t hear ya cos he’s obsessing so much.”

“Whaddaya mean?”

“Pixie’s obsessive in general, idiot. Can’t multitask like you, he gets into stuff, ‘n’ it’s all he can think about. Magic’s always been his favourite, too, so ya got no chance,” Nova explained. Arez found himself strangely enraged. “Carmen used to haveta drag ’im away from all the books at that house.”

“…who’s Carmen?”

Nova’s face turned stony. “Crow’s sister.”

As the redhead turned away, Arez remember Lao mentioning swapping blood with someone who died from the resulting magical overload — hadn’t that person been named Carmen, too?

Begrudgingly, Arez went back to studying. It was impossible to concentrate, especially after realising that Lao had always been more than willing to focus on people other than his protagonist.

Over the next few days, Lupin kept saying how amazing it was that they were progressing so quickly whilst having to learn years of curriculum. But they were only focusing on the spells tested in exams, and it wasn’t until their Third Year ones that Lao started to struggle at all. It was _embarrassing_.

Lao tried to talk about how amazing Arez was for having such control over his magic after only having started to use it a few weeks ago, which was patronisingly offensive. Jerk. And then Nova was more of a jerk by telling Lao to stop, and that none of them were _that_ impressive, not that _Nova_ had any problems either!

Arez had never been stressed by schoolwork before. School, yes. The actual coursework? Nope. Easy. So why wasn’t magic easy too?

They kept studying. Lupin kept saying they were all good. Arez started to suspect Lupin was just praising them so they’d like him. He didn’t even get a rush from using that magic like he did when using siren magic.

Not that Arez was bitter or anything.

About a week after they arrived, the witches and wizards had had enough of freaking out about dainisa existing. They started freaking out about some kid called Harry Potter being expelled from school. Arez was worried too until Nova explained, ‘ _They don’t kill kids when they expel them here_.’

So, y’know, whatever, right?

They were bringing him to HQ so he could be put on trial. Lao was engrossed in the drama, watching the adults charge around with interest and questions when Mrs Weasley would indulge him (which was a lot, Lao was a spoilt princess and all).

“The poor dear lives with a very strange family,” Mrs Weasley said. “I worry about how they treat him, I’ve been told it’s not what it looks like, and poor Harry won’t talk about it… he’ll be fine once he’s here, he’s a sweet boy, lovely despite everything, you’ll get along with him.”

Except, after seeing Lao looking _very_ closely at a picture of the bastard in the newspaper, Arez knew he’d hate him. Lao even _blushed_. The _fuck_.

“Did you see that?” Arez hissed at Nova later, when they were alone.

“Uh-huh,” Nova replied, completely disinterested.

“Aren’t you meant to do the protective big brother thing and make him cut it out?!”

Nova shrugged. “He’s had worse crushes.” And then the pointed stare.

“Shut up!” Arez cried. “It’s not like that!”

“You wish it was,” Nova said.

“No! Shut up! I don’t care!”

“Then stop talking about it.”

Nova was infuriating. And stupid.

They knew when the stupid wizard-Jesus turned up because they could hear him shouting. Lao looked up from his book, shoulders drawn up against his neck tensely, and jumped across the room to Nova’s side where he curled up.

“The hell?” Nova said.

Lao muttered, “Nothing” as he burrowed against Nova’s side.

It was pretty pathetic. Arez tried not to wince himself but that wasn’t because he was pathetic. And it wasn’t like he was running to hide against a bigger, stronger person so, there. Plus Arez could hear what he was saying and it actually seemed pretty reasonable to be pissed off at people not telling you what was going on and trapping you in vague plans with half-information, _Lao_.

They were soon called down for dinner, and apparently all of Lao’s patheticness became a new type when they saw Harry. And, okay, Arez could understand; wizard-Jesus was even more handsome in person. Warm brown skin, perfectly dishevelled hair, all of which only made his green eyes more piercing and the sick lightning bolt scar more striking. It was a lot. But it wasn’t worth _twirling his golden hair around his finger as he stared up at someone who was definitely not Arez_ like some loser girl from a bad movie that doesn’t know how people work.

“Hi,” Lao said, breathily, holding them all up in the damn creepy hallway. Arez glanced at Nova, but he was biting his lip to keep from laughing. “My name’s —”

He was interrupted by a loud thump.

Tonks was on the ground, apologising, as one of the paintings started screaming. Arez pulled Lao away from the stupid sexy probably-Satan-not-Jesus in the resulting rush, but he didn’t seem to care. He just moved further out of the way as adults rushed by and watched as they pulled the hangings over the painting.

“What’s your _problem_?” Arez whispered.

As the painting fell silent, Lao whispered back, “Look, Sirius is smiling. I haven’t seen him smile before.”

Arez didn’t remember which one Sirius was. At least Lao stopped looking at the asshole like that. Even as they settled down for dinner, Lao kept talking to Nova in quiet, amused Dainisan, stopping only when they were formally introduced to Harry. He seemed to have heard something about them, because he didn’t ask any of the obvious questions about a new species of magical humanoid creatures and was pretty wrapped up in the one Lao called Sirius. Which was, y’know. Apparently that was his godfather so it wasn’t a creepy thing.

Arez watched how everyone interacted with their precious wizard-Jesus. It didn’t _seem_ like they were worshipping him, and he didn’t seem to want them to. Actually, he seemed as curious about everyone else as Arez was about him. And way too into the food.

Ridiculous. And stupid.

There was one weird moment, though. One of the clearly evil twins fucked up his magic, and a knife went flying. Nobody was hurt, because duh, and for some reason their wizard-Jesus and Sirius-apparently found this hilarious. But obviously _they_ weren’t what was interesting, Lao was. As they knife flew, Lao flinched against Nova, hand pressed to his left eye as he whispered in a way that looked incoherent even to Nova’s stupid sexy multi-lingual capabilities. When he stopped, Lao looked paler, and his hands shook for a good ten minutes before he noticed Ginny trying to get his attention, and settled into his normal Pretty Perfect Princess routine.

Was it because of his cheek, Arez wondered? He hadn’t seen Leon cutting Lao but he knew, just from the look of the scar, he must’ve made a series of cuts. Knowing Leon had ruined Lao’s face pissed him off beyond regret.

Also, Lao kept glancing at wizard-Jesus. Who kept glancing at him too. Maybe deformed scar-faces were drawn together, not realising that aesthetically there could only be one scar-face per a relationship. Illiterate fools.

When their meal was completed, and they started to clear the plates away, Sirius turned to Harry and said, “I’m surprised at you. I thought the first thing you’d do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort.”

In an instant, the room turned cold.

“I did. I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we’re not allowed in the Order…”

“And they’re quite right,” Mrs Weasley cut in, “you’re _far_ too young.”

“What about them?” George asked loudly, gesturing to the dainisa. “They’re in the Order!”

“No we’re not,” Lao said.

“No, we’re _not_ ,” Arez took over for him, because Lao was stupid and incompetent and _still making eyes at Harry fucking Potter_ , “we’re refugees from a country which has been cut off from the world for ten _years_ , we were just getting caught up on what’s happened in the world. That’s not being _members_!”

“Doesn’t explain why you’re he—”

Lao interrupted, “Our eldest brother is a member. Crow Hotfire. Big white guy with stupid hair. He exchanged some information for our safety, about what Voldemort — I mean, You-Know-Who, sorry — wants from our people. So that’s —”

“What’s he after?” Harry demanded.

Lao looked panicked. “I — I —”

“We don’t know,” Nova said. “Adults are pretty great at not telling kids things they probably need to know for their own safety.”

“I’m not a _kid_ ,” Harry started to protest.

“That’s enough,” Mrs Weasley said again.

But Sirius said, “It’s a good point, Nova. And anyway, since when did someone have to be in the Order to ask questions? Harry’s been trapped in that Muggle house for months. He’s got a right to know what’s been happening.”

They kept arguing, about what people needed to know, how much of the war to tell children about, and Arez didn’t care. He’d heard the argument every other night since he was six years old. Patronise people, or put too much on them? Did it matter? Especially when Darth Dark was gonna come kill Harry anyway?

He’d heard the argument so, so much.

Rolling his eyes, Arez got up and left the room. He waited for Lao to follow him, or Nova, but neither of them came. Nobody did.

Assholes.

*

After Mrs Weasley sent them skulking off to bed, Lao slid close to Harry and very quietly whispered, “Tomorrow morning. I’ll tell you the truth.”

Harry looked at him strangely, and Lao thought he could get swept away by how intense those green eyes were if he wasn’t careful. “You know something else? What the weapon is?”

“Maybe,” Lao replied. “Tomorrow, okay?”

Mrs Weasley loudly said, “I want you all in bed immediately. No talking. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”

Lao forced a smile as he headed to the room with Nova.

“Y’know,” Nova said, smirking, “it’s amazing how little chill you have.”

Lao’s face felt very, very warm. “Shut up.”

Predictably, Lao woke up ridiculously early, just as the dawn was breaking. He felt too wired to sleep. So he got dressed, slipped out with a Transfiguration book as a cover and snuck around invisibly, keeping an eye out for Harry. To his surprise, he encountered Harry just down the hall. Like they’d been called together, or something. Lao quickly cast off his invisibility, approaching him quietly, heart pounding so loudly he had to take extra care with his steps.

“Morning,” Lao said, very softly.

“Er. Hi. Lao, wasn’t it?”

Lao nodded, smile growing. It was refreshing to not be famous, in a way. “So. I promised you the truth.”

“Yeah. What exactly did you lie about last night?”

“I didn’t, my brother Nova did,” Lao replied. “I don’t know how much Ron and Hermione told you about dainisa. But Voldemort wants one of us specifically. A siren.”

“Er. Siren?”

“He can enchant people through music to do whatever he wants.”

“He can already do that,” Harry said. “He’s done it a lot. The Imperius Curse?”

Lao had read about it, somewhere in a book about dark magic he’d hidden inside an assigned textbook. “This is much more powerful than that. And he can make it effect anyone who can hear his voice.” Lao looked away. “I don’t know anything else. My eldest brother wants me to take a break from fighting.”

“Right,” Harry said.

He didn’t sound as grateful as Lao had expected. And he didn’t seem particularly charmed by Lao’s general everything. Maybe the scar was more damaging to his charms than Lao had previously thought. Lao was tempted to use animakinesis, to see what it would take to make Harry like him, but…

But he didn’t need a Desi pretty boy falling for him that badly. Nice as it would be. Probably a bad idea. Arez, and all that.

Still. Harry was _really_ pretty.

“I don’t understand a whole lot,” Lao said, instead of invading Harry’s soul. “Dumbledore is um. Vague.”

“He does that.”

“Well I’m not,” Lao replied. “All I want is to keep the siren away from Voldemort, get back to ending the war in Australia, and continuing my endless search for the Sun to guide dainisa to co-exist with humans in peace.”

“Er. Okay.”

“I’m not interested in keep any secrets, just keeping creeps from running countries and murdering hum— people without magic,” Lao better explained. “So I think we should be transparent and honest.”

“Sure,” Harry said, “I don’t have anything to tell you. They don’t tell me anything.”

“They should,” Lao replied. “It’s — it’s hard to trust other people know best, or are doing the right thing, when they won’t even tell you what they’re doing. I don’t know what’s hard for angels to understand about that.”

“Did you say angels?”

“No, I said adults. Definitely.”

“Sure. Transparent and honest.”

Lao’s face felt hot. “My brother who isn’t Nova says he’s an angel. He works with people who say they’re angels. I’m not Christian so I don’t really care.”

“Okay,” Harry said. “Can you explain any of this?”

“Um. Not really? He was a dainisa but he died but he got better and now he has bad hair and wings sometimes? I’m sure you’ll meet him at some point, and…”

And Lao was wondering why he had to have a moral compass when it put him in such a prime position to embarrass himself in front of _hot obviously gay boys his own age who weren’t Arez for once_.

“…and the only thing I know that I didn’t already tell you is that Arez is the siren.”

“So, your friend is the siren Voldemort wants to do something he can already do?”

“He’s not really my _friend_.”

Harry looked irritated.

“Voldemort can’t do what a siren can,” Lao insisted, a little more calmly. “We could show you but that’d be a little unethical and I don’t really want to encourage that sort of behaviour.”

Harry still looked irritated.

“I’ll tell you more as I find out more,” Lao said. “You too, though, okay? We’re all fighting for the same thing.”

“Sure,” Harry said, “whatever.”

And just like that, Lao’s crush evaporated in a wave of, _What a grumpy bastard_. It felt like an unfair judgement when Harry was whisked away to be put on trial for defending his life against some soul-eating called ‘Dementors’, but feelings were feelings.

Plus it wasn’t like Lao had ever gotten past being angry at how good Arez looked despite being the worst person in the world.

Okay. Maybe not worst. Definitely not worst. Actually, sometimes, he was even… Lao couldn’t think like that.

Lupin was distracted with them the whole day in a way that could only mean he had some close relationship with Harry. Lao would’ve asked if Nova hadn’t cast him the ‘I know what you’re thinking and DO NOT’ look. He also gave The Look any time Lao tried to ask about their magical legal system. Okay, yes, there was an appropriate time and place, but there was also a limitation on how long after a thing you could ask questions without looking like a blonde idiot!

But even The Look wasn’t enough to stop him when, during the day, they saw a small bipedal creature with huge ears, eyes, and wrinkly skin, like an old man crossed with a fennec fox. Lao quickly ducked away to ask Lupin, “What is that?”

They were well out of earshot and the creature, bitterly muttering, walked away.

“That’s a house elf,” Lupin replied. “I suppose you don’t have anything similar?”

Lao shook his head. “What is it doing here? Do you normally live with them?”

Lupin looked uncomfortable. “Some families do. Usually, older, pureblood families, like Sirius’s. They help out around the house.”

“Like a maid?”

Someone Lupin managed to look even more uncomfortable.

Nova interrupted in Dainisan, “Read between the lines.”

Lao glanced back at him, following the shape of Nova’s lips as he mouthed his conclusion.

“They’re _slaves_?”

“No,” Lupin said, “it’s more like…”

Lao stared with increasing horror as Lupin failed to define what it was more like.

“I don’t like it either,” Lupin said weakly. “They, however, do. They find the idea of freedom insulting. It would be too unkind to free them, elves who have been let go rarely find new masters. It isn’t a pleasant situation, but for now, so long as they’re treated well…”

“How could they like it?” Lao asked. “How could —”

“Athena likes humans,” Arez interrupted, “is that any different?”

It was, Lao knew it was, but he couldn’t figure out _why_.

Nova placed a hand on his shoulder. “C’mon Pixie. I’ll explain all about ‘creeping normality’ and ‘traumatic bonding’ later.”

Anger flooded him. How could Nova, after everything they’d been through, think Lao didn’t know about those things? Did Nova actually think he was that stupid? _He_ was the one who didn’t even know what Lao could have lived through.

But it was Nova. Lao didn’t know everything he’d been through, because Nova never told anybody anything. And he probably meant it as some stupid pithy remark.

And if Lao reacted to his anger, he’d have to spend months telling Nova it was fine, dealing with all Nova’s anxieties and coldness, so fucking on.

So Lao closed his eyes, and let it go.

Never mind that that was the first step of ‘creeping normality’, _Nova_.

It was only hours later, part-way through the feast celebrating Harry being found not guilty, that Lao’s brain felt less foggy.

A few days later, birds brought them letters. As Arez ranted at length about how stupid, illogical, ridiculous, and dumb using owls to send letters was, Lao read through the letter.

“Getting it the day before we go to school is pretty last minute, isn’t it?” Lao said. “What about other people who didn’t know about this school? What are they doing?”

“Dunno,” Nova said. “Schools probably assumes the second they hear about magic, the kids are gonna accept it and come running.”

“And yeah! Why would you let a bird in your house if you don’t know they deliver letters?!” Arez cried.

Nova frowned. “I think they got someone to hand-deliver it? One of the teachers. I dunno.”

“That still doesn’t explain how owls survive the trip to deliver these letters from — who knows how far away,” Arez said.

“And how do you explain being able to play any instrument the first time you pick it up?” Nova asked. “Forget all your other bullshit.”

Arez huffed in frustration, but mercifully, shut up.

“Do you think we’re ready?” Lao asked. “It’s so different to learn from a private tutor compared to in a class…”

Arez muttered, “Of course the _princess_ knows all about private tutors.”

“Yeah, _Leon_ ,” Lao replied, “and his _girlfriend_ , so, Lupin’s the only _good_ one I’ve had, get over yourself, I know your mum home-schooled you.”

“I know someone who needs to get better at schooling people,” Nova said, rolling his eyes.

“What does — what — shut up!” Arez cried. “You’re a prodigy, and pretty, and popular when you stop being _emo_ , so, shut up!”

And, for some reason, Arez actually stormed out of the room.

“What was that about?” Lao murmured, being sure to switch to Dainisan.

“Insecurity,” Nova replied. “Obviously.”

“People don’t like me unless they know I’m their princess,” Lao said, frowning. “I couldn’t even get Jon to like me.”

“He thinks ’cos you were hanging around him,” Nova explained. “It’s not that hard to figure out. Aré’s pretty simple when you strip away all the layers.”

“Like Shrek,” Lao murmured.

Nova was staring at him strangely for some reason.

“Look, whatever, right?” Lao said quickly. “We just need to get through however long Crow’s making us stay at this school. Then we can get back to fixing Australia.”

“Sure,” Nova said. “If you don’t decide this is your war to fight, too.”

Lao looked at him. “What?”

Nova set his letter down, shaking his head. “I’ll go talk to Arez.”

Lao watched Nova leave, frown increasing. Okay, they were bound to be out of sync. Nova’d spent three years in Arez’s head. That would do horrible things to anyone’s mind. Look at what spending a few months seeing eight years that could be (could _have_ been) had done to Lao’s.

Still. Lao wasn’t used to looking at his brother and having no idea what he was thinking.

“Confusing, isn’t it,” a familiar voice said from above him. Lao quickly glanced up at Crow. “Why would you even bother with Smythe?”

“I guess he doesn’t want Arez to take it out on the wizards,” Lao replied. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Of course you are,” Crow said, plucking the letter from Lao’s hands. “You’ll need more money for this. Yeesh, textbooks. They could at least add price estimates to make it easier. Wait, not even estimates, they should know how much the books they’re assigning cost.”

“I saw Kris Jeehl,” Lao said, loudly. “Here. In the wizard’s shopping district.”

Crow froze mid-smarm. “That… that doesn’t sound right.”

“No, it doesn't,” Lao said. “Who’s running the rebellion? Nova said Jason, but —”

“Yes,” Crow said, joining Lao in frowning at last. “Yes, he is, but I also remember — curious.”

“What’s going on?” Lao asked. “Because this feels like some trap now.”

“I don’t know,” Crow said. “I had no idea… I’ll check.”

He pulled a small sack of money from one of his cargo pockets and disappeared. Lao opened it, examining the solid gold coins until Crow returned a minute later.

“No clue,” Crow said, scowl deepening. “Gabby won’t tell me shit. Why do we even _have_ him?”

“To look pretty,” Lao replied, setting the money sack aside. “Bro. Something deeper’s going on here, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know why anyone’d be interested in Kris if he’s not leading the rebellion,” Crow replied. His eyes widened. “Unless… Nicholas…”

“Nick?” Lao said, surprised. “What’s Nick —?”

“No, you’re right, Nick isn’t powerful enough to do jack shit,” Crow murmured. “Don’t ever tell Kris I said that. Though — is Rose here?”

Lao nodded. “At least, a girl who looked just like Kris. Their dad, too.”

Crow winced. “Oh, man. Something seriously fucked up is going on.”

“I’m going to make sure I go back to Diagon Alley to get these books personally,” Lao said. “I’ll, I’ll see if I can find Kris, or an excuse to ask the wizards about him that won’t make them too suspicious?”

“Go to Diagon Alley and look for Kris, yeah,” Crow agreed. “Don’t mention Kris to the wizards, though. That’ll draw too much suspicion to him. Harry’s an especially paranoid little wannabe Holmes, he’ll probably start stalking Kris.”

“Okay,” Lao sighed.

“Don’t do anything rash,” Crow said. “I’ll keep looking. I’ll see if Remy can see anything, he basically hates angels anyway.”

“Remy seems pretty hateful,” Lao said. “Are you sure he’s right for you?”

“I mean? Duh? What’s hate-sex without hate?”

It took all of Lao’s inner strength not to roll his eyes or pull a face at that. Like Crow could possibly hate someone he talked about with that much emotion in his voice.

“I’ll keep you updated,” Crow said. “Say hi to Novie.”

He disappeared again.

Lao breathed in deeply, flopping back on his bed. He tried to keep his mind from wandering, and focused instead on feeling his magic, drawing it out, until he felt safer.

First he was interrupted by a very Hermione-sounding shriek. It threw him off, but he kept himself from panic: she sounded excited. Maybe she was just screaming in happiness at having their book list? She seemed the type.

Then Mrs Weasley screamed.

Before Lao could even burst out the door, Nova opened it, walking in with a worryingly calm-looking Arez. “Don’t bother,” Nova said. “Somethin’ about the swotties of swots being chosen.”

“Uh?”

Nova shrugged. “Heads of year groups… or somethin’. I dunno.”

“Who would care?” Arez asked. “What’s the point of being the swottiest of swots when schools are inherently evil institutes propped up by the tapewormiest of tapeworm agendas?”

“Okay, comrade,” Nova said, rolling his eyes. “Keep tellin’ yourself that like you weren’t going for top grades at your damn prison.”

“I wasn’t!” Arez cried. “It just happened! Because I’m a genius! I’m the real genius, _Lao_.”

Lao raised his eyebrows. “Who said I’m a genius?”

Nova snorted.

Lao slipped past him, holding their letters tightly. “I want to go back to that shopping district anyway. Crow and I are checking something out.”

“Are you, now,” Nova said, eyes narrowing.

Lao nodded. “See ya.”

“Pixie.”

Lao left before Nova could interrogate him. Nova had a way of getting the truth out of people. So did Arez, for that matter. It was frustrating. Something inside Lao was twisting, but it was doing so slowly, like it was stunned. Or terrified to reveal itself. Because most of Lao was terrified to process anything he felt where Arez was involved. And if it happened to involve Arez, and Nova, and Arez looking at Nova for approval, and Nova looking at Arez with interest, and… and potential…

Lao caught Mrs Weasley on her way down the stairs.

“Hey,” he said, quickly. “Um, if you were —”

“Oh, Lao dear,” she interrupted, “I’m just heading to Diagon Alley, I’ll pick them up for you boys too.”

Lao fought off a wince. “Actually, I wanted to come help. To, see it more, too. If that’s okay?”

“Of course it is,” Mrs Weasley beamed. “It’ll be a quick shop, you know, I wouldn’t mind the company, and oh, that might give me more time to — Ronnie’s a Prefect, did you hear?”

“Yeah, Nova told me,” Lao replied. “Congratulations.”

Mrs Weasley beamed more brightly. “Fifth in the family, you know!”

“I didn’t, that’s amazing?”

Lao wasn’t clear what a Prefect actually was. He was going off context. It had to be impressive. Mrs Weasley had the same look Amaya did when she didn’t think Lao was watching her gloat about his magic.

Mrs Weasley didn’t seem like the kind of mother to hide her pride from her children, though. Must be nice.

“Let me Floo a couple of people, dear, won’t take a moment, and you can get your things…”

Lao didn't need to get anything, but he agreed. As Mrs Weasley bustled off murmuring “Ronnie… a _Prefect_ …” to herself, he thought about getting changed. Maybe into a dress, see how anyone called him a boy then. But that would mean giving Nova a second chance at interrogation, and seeing Arez, and, well, no. Jeans and jacket would have to do.

London was too cold for dresses anyway. Even in their summer.

As he hovered awkwardly around the house, Lao properly took in the darkness, the lingering grime, the portraits that moved like gifs and talked like Shakespeare-inspired memes, for the first time. He’d never been alone in it outside his bedroom, and he’d always been more interested in the people than his surroundings.

Nothing about the ultra-white, very Victorian house looked like it, and yet, something about the place reminded him of his mother’s apartment in Yamakita.

“Oh, hi Lao,” Hermione’s voice behind him said.

Lao glanced over his shoulder. He forced a smile. “Hey.” He noticed the badge in her hand, the letter on Hogwarts stationary, and said, “Did you get Prefect?”

Hermione beamed and nodded.

“Congratulations,” Lao said. He turned to face her properly, leaning back against the wall. “So, what’s that mean at Hogwarts?”

“Well, there’s six prefects from each house, two chosen from each year group once they reach Fifth Year,” Hermione started to explain, an excited gleam in her eyes.

“What’s the selection criteria?” Lao asked, like it wasn’t obvious. Something told him Hermione didn’t get much of an opportunity to brag about herself.

Her cheeks flushed slightly. “The Heads of Houses put students’ names forward, and then the Headmaster selects from those.”

“But is it like, being smart?”

“That — that might be part of it,” Hermione said. “It’s about responsibility, too. And getting along with other students.”

“Hmm,” Lao said, dodging the edge of the instinctive aizuchi. “We didn’t end up catching up on classes together at all, you know.”

“I know, it’s been a bit hectic here, hasn’t it?” Hermione said. “With everything, and, I’ve been worried — but, I work hard at school. We can always study together, if you’d… you’d like.”

“Yeah, I would,” Lao replied. “I haven’t, um. I went to a real school for, uh, kindergarten, I guess? In Japan. Then I didn’t go to a real school again until I was 12, for about three years. It was a muggle school so —”

“I’m muggle-born,” Hermione interrupted quickly. “I know all about muggle schools too. I tried to keep on the national curriculum too, it was a lot easier in my first three years, but there’s so much to learn! It’s hard to find the time. You have to put limits on yourself… so I found out.”

She looked bitter at the idea. Lao wondered if this was what Nova would’ve been like if he’d been allowed to go to a real school. Except, maybe not, because Nova’s desperation to learn was fuelled by Leon trying to stop him from doing so. He seemed much more relaxed in general since Leon had died.

“I was in Canada, so I don’t think it’d be worth much here,” Lao said. “And, anyway, to be honest, I wasn’t a very good student. I couldn’t pay attention. I didn’t speak English as well back then, either. But I’ll try really hard, too.”

“Lupin said you’ve all caught up remarkably fast,” Hermione said. “Especially Nova.”

Lao shrugged. “Wish we’d gotten the book lists for this year earlier than the day before we go.”

“I know!” Hermione cried. “And I won’t be able to read them on the train, prefects have to patrol the corridors.”

Lao frowned. “Are we supposed to read them before arriving?”

“No, not really, I like to be prepared, is all,” Hermione mumbled.

Lao nodded, relieved. “Well. I’m waiting for Mrs Weasley, I’m going to get our books with her.”

“I’ll come too, I need to get mine, and I’ve already packed,” Hermione said, very quickly. Then she froze, like she just realised what she’d agreed to, and wanted a way out.

“If you want to, cool,” Lao said. “If you don’t, don’t worry.”

“No, no!” Hermione cried. “I do! I’d like to pick up extra books at Flourish and Blotts, wait a second, I’ll —”

She disappeared behind a nearby door.

The problem with the ability to see souls and an increase in paranoid brought about by Arez fucking Smythe: Lao was constantly tempted to use his magic to quickly find answers he didn’t need or deserve.

Hermione returned a moment later, face still flushed, holding a small purse. She slipped it in her jeans pocket, and secured her wand up her sleeve.

“Do you need that?” Lao asked.

“Never know,” Hermione replied. “I don’t feel quite complete without it. Come on, then, let’s go wait closer to the entrance.”

Lao followed her down, wondering if maybe she had some issues with Mrs Weasley. He didn’t know anything about Hermione’s homelife except what she’d just offered, and his experiences at the re-education camp hadn’t exactly made ‘so, how about your family eh’ a normal question. Neither had being jyji; everyone knew from looking at him, and his reputation. He knew most of them from their Facebook profiles and the jyji group chats he was allowed to lurk on. Conversation always dried up when he said anything, and he was certain they had a number of chats he was excluded from.

“So,” Lao started as they walked down the stairs, “do you only read non-fiction?”

“Pretty much,” Hermione replied. “There’s just so much to learn.”

The wrong kind of bookworm, then.

They ran into Mrs Weasley on the way, and though she looked startled (then sceptical, then relieved), she welcomed Hermione along warmly.

Lao could conclude a lot from their tense-but-polite interactions, and how warm Mrs Weasley tried to be. Such as, she’d done something that upset Hermione and was trying to make up for it without apologising. He wondered how close they all had to be for Mrs Weasley to care. Or was Hermione another orphan Mrs Weasley tried to mother? Or, did Mrs Weasley feel the need to mother every child she met?

But that wasn’t what he was in Diagon Alley for. Lao looked around, desperate for a glimpse of Kris. He regretted never looking at Kris with animakinesis in the future; would’ve made it easier to find him.

Would’ve if Lao could _use_ animakinesis properly, that is.

It was much more crowded than his first trip. At times, it was actually hard to see the shopfronts for all the teenagers crowding around, leaning away from frustrated parents.

“Oh dear, it might take a while in this,” Mrs Weasley murmured.

Lao looked up at her, eyebrows raised. “I’m good in crowds, I’m Japanese.”

She smiled like she understood it was a joke but didn’t get it.

They pushed through to the bookstore first. Hermione immediately beelined for the Defence Against the Dark Arts section, snatching half a dozen textbooks and clutching them to her chest. Absolutely no regard for others attempting to get the same book.

“Take these,” Hermione said, dumping them on Lao.

She went back in the fray, eyes narrowed and ruthless.

Lao tried to look at Mrs Weasley, but she was gone too — across the room, snatching various levels of the _Standard Book of Spells_ from their shelves.

“Well, well,” an airy voice behind him said, “Granger’s got a new pet, I see.”

Lao glanced to his left. Two people were approaching, walking slow and calm like the fighting around them was an inconsequential bore. One was a tall, broad-shouldered, terrifyingly pale white person; but Lao didn’t pay him much mind. His eyes locked with the speaker; a redheaded woman he recognised. Or could have recognised.

Luna King.

Her hair was dyed a darker red, closer to brown; she was extremely thin, which made Lao think she was taller than she was for a moment; and she carried herself with more pretention, like she desperately wanted to be seen as graceful and confident as she would grow up to be. Still, it was obviously Luna, the woman Lao could-have-known. The girlfriend Athena could-have, and if there was justice in the world, would have.

“Oho,” Luna said, twirling her hair around a finger mockingly. “You’re a pretty thing, aren’t you?”

“So I hear,” Lao replied, “except the scar.”

Luna stepped closer, pulling back his hair to examine it. “Someone hates you, don’t they?”

Lao met her eyes. There was no way she could miss his irises at this proximity. He could see the flecks of green in her brown eyes even before they widened with recognition. Luna stepped back, quickly covering it up with indifference.

“Well,” she said, voice less of a desperate-to-be-cool drawl, “well. That’s. Hm.”

“What’s your deal, creep?” the other one said. Lao looked at him properly. He had nice cheekbones, his dark brown hair hanging around them in a way that emphasised the kind of finely-chiseled face white people shoved into movies. It was, admittedly, something to see a face like that in person. But all the same, Hollywood’s bad habit of casting all one type of look until Lao couldn’t watch movies without getting all the pasty white bread mixed up had its cost on the attractive white dude economy.

“Nooothing,” Luna replied. “Let’s just —”

The white bread held his hand out to Lao. “Hey. I’m Kez. Uh, Kez Cooper.”

Lao shook his hand, saying very pointedly. “Lao Yamaguchi.”

No flicker of recognition in Kez, but a big one in Luna.

“That’s Diana,” he said, jerking his head in Luna’s direction.

“Wait,” Lao said, frowning. “I thought it was…? I mean. Never mind.”

He was a goddamn _dainisan princess_ , if anybody should be used to the concept of _names_ … But there was some sense of knowing it all, in having seen the future.

Diana still sweetly asked, “You thought what?”

Thinking quickly, Lao replied in Dainisan, “I thought you were a dainisa, and therefore likely to avoid all names related to the moon.”

Diana laughed, still speaking English. “Oh, yeah, no shit. I used to be called Luna, until this stupid bitch stole my name and got all famous. It’s kind of on purpose.” She leant closer, sneering in Dainisan, “Does that upset you, Princess?”

Kez didn’t look confused by the language switch. Interesting. Lao stuck to English as he replied, “No. Just makes it clear how hashtag edgy you are, sweetheart.”

“Oh, what a sick burn,” Diana replied, rolling her eyes. “Do you kiss your mother with a mouth that _human_?”

Suddenly, Lao was pushed slightly back. Hermione inserted herself between them, eyes burning. Her hands would’ve surely been on her hips if not for the books.

“Oh, Granger, hi,” Diana said. She stood up straighter, voice straining to desperately airy and smarmy again. “You’re looking lovely as ever.”

Lao could see that she actually meant it. But her tone didn’t do her any favours; Hermione bristled.

“What do you want?” Hermione snapped.

Kez covered her mouth before Diana could reply. “She was saying hi to Lao. Don’t see many transfers, do we.”

Lao didn’t know if it was simply obvious, or if Kez was just very lucky.

Diana shoved Kez’s hand away. “Bet you’re Prefect, am I right?”

“Yes,” Hermione said, “so don’t —”

“Me too,” Diana said. “Guess we’ll be seeing more of each other, huh? Isn’t that nice.”

Lao had to say something. He said it very carefully and clearly in Dainisan, “You shouldn’t try to look indifferent when you’re trying to flirt with someone, you know.”

Diana’s face went bright red as Kez fought to contain snickers.

“Nice seeing you,” Diana blurted. “I’ll —” She dashed off.

“That was actually a pretty good burn,” Kez said. “See ya, Lao.”

As Kez went after Diana, Hermione turned to Lao, eyes now overflowing with concern. “Are you — what did you say? What language was that?”

“The Dainisan language,” Lao replied. “She’s a dainisa.”

“She’s a complete cow,” Hermione said. “Slytherins like her are why the entire house has the reputation it does.”

Lao shrugged. “She seemed okay. Seemed like she was trying too hard to be cool. That’s basically what I said.”

“No, she’s just mean,” Hermione said. “She always singles me out, and now she’s a _Prefect_? How did someone so _thick_ —”

Hermione went on for a long time. Lao was getting the sense Diana had well and truly ruined her chances there.

Lao didn’t see Kris again, but seeing the person who would become Luna King was enough to tell him he wasn’t paranoid. Well, not without reason. Something _was_ going on.

On the way back to Grimmauld Place, Lao carefully asked about the reputations of each House again. This time, Hermione gave a more detailed account of how Slytherin was notorious for its links to evil wizards, evil magic, and hatred of people who weren’t ‘pureblood’.

“But if you’re human, what’s it matter?” Lao asked. “If you’re humans reproducing with humans, I mean.” Quickly, he added, “Not that there’s actually much wrong with a dainisa and a human, it’s just, different species, so…”

“I hardly imagine it would matter,” Hermione said.

“No, I don’t, I just mean, there are dainisa without magic, apparently there are humans with magic, and that’s you guys, and I don’t know what a dainisa-human hybrid would be called,” Lao very quickly said. “Like… like I’ve been told, if you cross-breed a lion and a tiger, you get a liger. A daiman? Hunisa? I don’t know the word for it?”

Hermione looked a little less tense, but still highly sceptical. Lao couldn’t blame her. When he said it aloud, without a sure way to explain it due to his limited knowledge and intelligence, it sounded pretty fucking awful.

“There are a lot of magical people who think the only witch worth existing is a Pureblood one,” Hermione said. “It’s ridiculous. But a lot of people in Slytherin, like _Malfoy_ , are very invested in it, and awful to muggle-borns. Like me.”

“Your parents are muggles?” Lao asked.

“They’re dentists,” Hermione replied.

Lao blinked. “Uh. Both of them, huh?”

She nodded, face still stern.

He would’ve laughed if he hadn’t known she’d be offended. It was just so, much, to look so serious while talking about dentists.

“I haven’t been to a dentist since I was four,” he told her. “That’s bad, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Hermione said. “What if your teeth were growing in wrong? Or do you use magic to fix things like that?”

Lao shook his head. “Unless it’s a type of magic within a person’s family, dainisa don’t really share our magic much. It’s not very safe.”

“What is the point of magic,” Hermione asked, “if it’s not helping people?”

Lao smiled. “I don’t know.”

Crow was waiting for him, perched in the corner of their room, glaring at Arez. Arez was glaring straight back. Nova was ignoring them both to read, to Lao’s horror, one of the wizard fiction books he’d picked up.

“Lao!” Arez cried as he closed the door behind him. “Lao! Make your stupid _not an angel because angels aren’t real_ brother tell us what you’re hiding!”

Lao rolled his eyes. “And you call me stupid?”

“Uh. You are?”

Crow hissed, “Say that again, fuckface.”

“You’re stupid too,” Arez said, “if you’re not telli—”

Crow was lunging at him. Lao barely managed to get between them in time.

“I didn’t see him again,” Lao said in Dainisan. Nova would find out eventually anyway. “I did see someone else, though. Luna King.”

Crow’s eyes were still on Arez’s face. He grabbed Lao’s arm and dragged him from the room. “Luna? Really?”

Lao nodded. “She does by Diana here.”

Crow sighed, “Edgelord.”

“Mm. She’s still really, very, incredibly a lesbian.”

“No shit,” Crow replied. “Anything else?”

“Sounds like she’s been at Hogwarts since she was 11,” Lao replied. “Hermione was saying she ‘picks’ on her.”

Crow’s eyes narrowed. He led Lao further down the hall before continuing to speak. “Listen. There’s something here. From what I can figure out, a bunch of people who should-have-been in Australia have been taken away. All around the same time. But I can’t figure out why, or the link.”

Lao fought back a sigh. “Is it me?”

“Princess, babe, it’s not all about you,” Crow replied. “It’s also about how the fuck they did it.”

“Could you do it?” Lao asked.

Crow shook his head. “There’s all kinds of divine protection involved when it comes to time. The paperwork to create an actual paradox is a fucking nightmare.”

“So do you think a mortal is behind this?” Lao asked. “Or is it something not-Christian that doesn’t follow your rules?”

Only the severity of the situation kept Lao from adding his most sarcastic ‘ _man_ ’.

“We all have to follow those rules,” Crow replied. “I don’t know how a mortal could, though… We don’t know enough to rule anything out.”

Lao nodded. “To be honest, I think there’s bigger things to worry about. Like Australia. Like Voldemort. Like getting this all over with so we can start fixing things.”

“Such a Hufflepuff,” Crow sighed. “Leave the worrying to me, okay? That’s my job.”

“It’s mine too,” Lao reminded him. “And it’s —”

He shut up. Someone was approaching.

“Come on,” Crow said, grabbing Lao’s arm again. They didn’t teleport, though; Crow simply pulled Lao closer to the wall and looked disinterested as Hermione approached, book in hand, looking incredulous.

“Oh, Hermione, hi,” Lao said.

“You forgot this one,” Hermione said.

“This is my other brother, I mentioned him the day we met, I think,” Lao explained. “His name’s Crow Hotfire.”

“Not Hotfire, _Hotfire_.”

Lao nodded. “See? Hotfire.”

“No! Shitting! Hiatsui!”

“Hotfire,” Lao said again. “He can’t even use fire magic.”

Hermione was starting to look irritated. Strange. Weren’t most people endeared by their fraternal antics?

“Uh, thanks for bringing me this,” Lao said, taking the book. “Must’ve — we had a lot of them.”

Crow looked at Hermione (who had moved on to staring at Crow’s braided hair in disbelief of how awful it was) and, in a calm, level voice, simply asked, “How long’s this Diana been giving you shit? Lao was just telling me about his first Slytherin encounter, you know.”

“I suppose since First Year,” Hermione replied. “Why does that matter to you?”

“I don’t want any nasty Slytherins taking a liking to my little brother,” Crow replied. “The not-nasty ones are fine, I suppose. If they don’t encourage any bizarre beliefs about blood.”

“I don’t believe any —”

Crow loudly interrupted, “I’m so sure he’s a Hufflepuff. A naive little innocent dumb Hufflepuff.”

Lao shoved him. Crow barely budged, smirk growing.

“I wouldn’t say Hufflepuffs are exactly _dumb_ ,” Hermione said.

“Yeah, well, forgive me,” Crow replied. “Former Ravenclaw and all.”

Hermione didn’t look impressed, but somehow, Lao thought that was exactly what Crow wanted. He clapped Lao on the shoulder, ruffled his hair annoyingly, saying, “Well, Hermione, we gotta go talk to your Headmaster about him.”

Lao shoved his hand away, muttering in Dainisan, “We do?”

“Enrolment details,” Crow explained. “What do you do with a non-binary at a school as Britishly binarist as Hogwarts?”

“I don’t know,” Hermione said, like it were an actual question.

Lao asked Hermione, “What, don’t you have private rooms?”

“No,” she replied. “Shared dorms by grade.”

“And gender,” Crow added.

“Well, of course —”

“Come along now Lao,” Crow said, grabbing Lao’s arm. “Mustn’t keep the old creep waiting.”

“Sorry, bye!” Lao called back to Hermione. “Remind me to ask you all about the train later, okay?”

“Okay,” Hermione said, like they were the weird ones.

“That wasn’t a lie, by the way,” Crow said quietly. “Sorry. This is going to suck so much for you.”

“I knew it was coming,” Lao replied. “At least we can ask him about Kris and Luna?”

“Absolutely not,” Crow said. “Don’t trust him, Lao. He’s spent too long being told how great and smart he is, he thinks he can toy with people’s lives like he’s the angel. And he’s probably high, like, all the time.”

Lao frowned. “Okay.”

“Seriously. Do not accept any sweets he offers you.”

“Okay, bro.”

Crow nodded as they reached the study. “Seriously. I’m sorry about this.”

“Let’s just get it over with,” Lao sighed. “It can’t be as bad as Eleos was.”

Crow rolled his eyes. “We’ll see.”

They opened the door. Dumbledore was standing staring into the fire, hands clasped behind his back. He turned slightly to look at them, smiling invitingly. “Good afternoon, Mathis, Lao.”

“Professor Dumbledore.”

“Hi.”

As he turned the rest of the way to face them, Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled at Lao. It was uncomfortable, especially in light of Crow’s warning. What in Lao’s life did Dumbledore see he could toy with? What was there _left_ for terrible men to grab at and control?

“So, you really don’t do solo rooms?” Crow asked.

Ah. Right. Gender, or lack thereof.

Crow continued, “Only I’m his guardian and I don’t want him to endure gender if he doesn’t want to.”

“I don’t,” Lao said, “but I don’t want to be singled out either.”

“There is a simple solution,” Dumbledore said. “Given Hogwarts’ traditions we can determine based on —”

“You _don’t_ want to finish that sentence,” Crow growled. Lao didn’t understand why until he added, “My little brother tends to get confused at that question, and I definitely get angry when I find out he’s been asked again. I don’t know what I’d do if I saw it.”

Oh. That… genital. Thing.

“Of course. I wouldn’t want to make this any more difficult on you than it is, Lao,” Dumbledore said. “However I’m sure you understand that the meeting of cultures requires the compromise of cultures.”

Crow snorted. “Would you enjoy being asked about your junk?”

Dumbledore smiled like an old man intrigued and even amused by kids these days, and Lao didn't want to speculate on why.

“How’s this for a compromise,” Lao started, mind racing. “I’ll sleep in one dorm, but wear the uniform for the, um.” He looked at Crow, widening his eyes. “Bro, how many genders are there?”

Crow shook his head. “As many as there are stars, my dear snowflake.”

“In that case, I don’t care where I sleep, so long as I can wear what I want.”

“There is a uniform,” Dumbledore said. “You may wear whatever you choose underneath your robes.”

“Not whatever,” Crow muttered. “I got detention for my Nirvana tee.”

“That was not a dress code matter,” Dumbledore replied. “Professor Snape much prefers Nickelback.”

Crow shuddered.

“I won’t wear anything so tacky,” Lao said, planning to do exactly that.

“Please feel free to be exactly as tacky as you wish,” Dumbledore replied, like adults trying to be Hip and Cool with the Teens didn’t ruin it entirely and make Lao wish they had some cliche English private school uniform complete with navy pinafores and silky red ribbons and lacrosse. “I’ve made sure staff are aware of your condition,” (Lao fought not to cringe as Crow tensed beside him) “and your preferences will be respected regardless of what dormitory you choose.”

“Thanks,” Lao said.

Crow looked ready to say ‘Don’t think him, it’s the least he can do’ while Lao tried to signal ‘Look, I don’t actually care very much about some super old teacher who’s Anglo as fuck, let it go for now’, which Crow must’ve picked up on because he asked, “And are the bathrooms still a bunch of individual shower stalls segregated by gender?”

“Yes,” Dumbledore replied. “I was going to suggest we arrange for you to have access to the Prefects Bathroom, Lao.”

“The swimming pool sized bath a bunch of snooty know-it-alls hang out in?” Crow asked.

“Our best and brightest students, rather,” Dumbledore said. “Usually we don’t allow any students other than Prefects, the Head Boy and Head Girl, and quidditch captains access, all of whom are old enough to respond maturely.”

“Bro,” Lao said, “didn’t you leave Hogwarts when you were about twelve?”

“Nevermind,” Crow said.

Dumbledore got the eye twinkle, like he was amused by juvenile delinquency.

“If there’s stalls, I don’t mind being in the normal ones,” Lao said.

“Lao,” Crow sighed, “ _showers_.”

“I’ll be fine,” Lao said stubbornly.

“You have a choice here and you should pick the one that puts less stress on you,” Crow said. The traitor turned to Dumbledore and said, “Know what PTSD is?”

“I’m afraid I don’t,” Dumbledore said.

“Of course not,” Crow said. “It’s trauma. A sickness of the mind. He doesn’t cope well with water being poured on his head because it sometimes tricks his mind into thinking he’s being water-boarded again.”

“ _Bro_ ,” Lao groaned, “I’ll be  _fine_.”

“Perhaps it would be best if both options were available to you,” Dumbledore said. “You can choose what you are most comfortable with, Lao.”

“Okay,” Lao said. He mumbled, “Thanks.”

Crow rolled his eyes.

“So. Um. How will we be Sorted? I read something about a Hat?”

“The Sorting Hat is a tradition from when Hogwarts was founded. When you wear it, the Hat will look at your mind and determine which House would suit you best,” Dumbledore explained. “It does factor in your choice, for our choices define us more than anything else.”

“Here we go,” Crow mumbled in Dainisan.

“Do you think I should choose to be in the same House as Arez?” Lao asked, ignoring Crow’s groan. “For the sake of his protection?”

“I believe Arez will be safe either way, he doesn’t appear the danger-seeking type,” Dumbledore said. “If only the same could be said of Harry.”

Lao understood now. Crow hadn’t been muttering about Lao, he’d been muttering about Dumbledore.

“Do you want me to keep an eye on him?” Lao asked. “To ask to be in Gryffindor?”

“It seems likely you would be Sorted into Gryffindor regardless,” Dumbledore said.

“That’s his bravado,” Crow said. “He’s a Hufflepuff.”

“I am not,” Lao hissed. To Dumbledore, he said, “I’m happy to, but, I’m not sure what Harry would need protecting from at school?”

“It is to make sure he stays at school. Harry is a very brave and curious boy, selflessly concerned with protecting others himself, which is admirable, yet gets him in a great deal of danger,” Dumbledore explained. “Harry feels a great responsibility for Voldemort, though it is not his responsibility alone.”

“Wow,” Crow said dryly, “how familiar.”

“Your abilities would be of great assistance to ensuring Harry’s safety,” Dumbledore said. “I wouldn’t ask too much, or to your discomfort.”

“I don’t like using my magic unless I have to,” Lao said. “And I don’t like using my soul magic on unsuspecting people. Probing people’s minds without permission is invasion of privacy.”

Hint, hint, stop it with the intense gazing, I know what you’re doing, you come into my soul magic with your weak ass shit, etc, anger meme on.

“Asking him would distress him too much,” Dumbledore said. “I see no reason to place extra burdens on his shoulders until I’m certain of what I suspect.”

“What do you suspect?” Lao asked.

“That his and Voldemort’s soul are linked through dark magic,” Dumbledore said.

Lao hadn’t expected him to actually answer honestly. Neither had Crow, from the look of his fist-clenching. But the lack of tension in Crow’s shoulders also said, ‘Play it cool, he’s on to our suspicions’.

“I’d need to study more of your magic, I think,” Lao replied. “To make sure I know what to look for.”

“Plus he doesn’t have full mastery of that particular magic yet,” Crow said. “So it could be putting Harry at risk.”

“I understand,” Dumbledore said. “It is an enormous power, and you are still young. It’s a great deal to ask of anyone.”

Lao nodded, like he would even try.

“Guess that’s all sorted then,” Crow declared, clapping Lao on the shoulder again. “Let’s go help set up for that surprise party Molly’s planning, hey?”

“Surprise party?”

Crow nodded. “Thank you for your time, Professor Dumbledore.”

“Thank you for yours,” Dumbledore said, “and looking forward to welcome you to Hogwarts tomorrow, Lao.”

Crow kept his grip tight around Lao’s shoulders, steering him to the kitchen, only letting him go to introduce himself to the adults there. Mrs Weasley eyed his hair sceptically while her smile remained bright in Lao’s direction. Crow didn’t care, though. His eyes had latched onto the most punk-rock thing in the room, and he introduced himself to Sirius entirely too eagerly. Sirius seemed oblivious, catching on the Nirvana talk somehow. Lao glanced at Lupin, who was barely containing an amused smirk. When he noticed Lao, he winked, in agreement of letting Crow humiliate himself.

So, wizardry wasn’t all bad. Just highly morally questionable at all times.

*

Lao was so overwhelmingly obnoxious. Arez had known that for a long time, but part of him always assumed Lao was obnoxiously vague and secretive due to the complexity of Lao’s feelings for him. It was inevitably very difficult to be a manipulative seductive type when you're fourteen, incredibly stupid (especially compared to the target of said manipulation), and way too into the song _Poison_ by Alice Cooper, probably. But no, here was Lao treating Nova the same way. What was Arez supposed to conclude from that? That Lao was a complex person with complex motives not defined by any single person or belief and the best way to react was with patience and respect until Lao realised he could trust him with anything?

Ha! Whatever, Nova. See how that works out for you, _loser_.

They had a party on the last night, and it just cemented how much Arez hated parties. A bunch of boring people hanging around pretending not to find each other boring. And just to make it worse, Crow was there.

There was a moment when Arez walked in with Nova, Nova looked at Crow, Crow looked at Nova, and Nova immediately abandoned Arez to go talk to the fake angel bastard with his weird hair that was bad. It was not a moment Arez cared to reflect on, yet he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

It was such a horrific thing to linger on, Arez didn’t even hesitate that much before walking over to Lao, who was talking to Ginny and Hermione and that old 20-something woman with the purple hair, so like, triple decker ew sandwich.

“Hi Arez,” Ginny said in that over-friendly way girls had. “Tonks was just telling us about…”

It didn’t matter. None of it mattered.

Arez kept one eye firmly on Nova and Crow. Seeing Nova actually talk to people, actually watching him go from highly strung to chillaxed as Crow guided conversation, was something… something that did matter, unfortunately.

Half-way across the room, Crow was laughing way too loudly at something Sirius said, declaring, “That’s so funny!”

And in that moment, Arez realised: Crow was a _total loser_.

Ginny giggled. “How old is your brother, Lao?”

“Um, twenty-three,” Lao replied.

“Unless he’s also lying to you about it,” Arez muttered.

Lao turned to look at him, eyes narrowing.

“Hey, check this out!” cried that woman called Tonks or whatever nonsense, suddenly turning her nose and mouth into a duckbill.

Lao laughed along with Hermione and Ginny, like it weren't a horrific abomination of all laws of nature and decency.

“You didn't cast a spell?” Lao asked.

“I’m a metamorphmagus,” Tonks replied. “Always been able to change my look at will. Comes in pretty handy, being an Auror and all.”

“That’s amazing,” Lao gushed. “I know someone else who can change her appearance, but not that much, and never that quickly.”

It was repulsive how much Lao loved magic but didn’t use it. What was it with him and loving things and not doing anything about it, _huh_?

“Aw, shucks, you’re making me blush,” Tonks said, face turning into a tomato.

Arez had to leave. And he absolutely was not offended by Lao not even glancing after him. He left properly and like a real, normal person and didn’t stare at Lao the entire time he walked away, there was no reason he ran into that wizard-Jesus, no, wizard-Jesus walked into _him_.

“Er, sorry,” Harry said.

Arez flicked back his hair righteously and asked, “Are you _really_ wizard-Jesus?”

Harry blinked at him. “Um. What?”

“Did you really die but get better?” Arez asked. “That’s what Jesus did, right?”

“Yes, I mean — Jesus did, not me, I didn’t — what are you talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Arez admitted before he could stop himself. What the fuck? Something about the way the glasses-covered asshole was looking at him caught him off guard. Which he never was, ever, in his life, except when Lao was fucking with his head or Nova was calling him a liar or Athena was just generally being. “Nova said you’re a famous baby. Literally, like, when you were a baby, you were famous, because you should’ve died but didn’t?”

“Because Voldemort tried to murder me,” Harry replied, sounding irritated. “After he killed my parents.”

“Oh,” Arez said. “I’m sorry? I guess? Parents suck? I don’t know anyone with good parents except maybe Jon the Whiny Bitch but he’s a whiny bitch and I mean in theory there must be good parents I just don’t know any because it’s hard to get a sample size of any reliability when you’re in a concentration camp in Australia.”

“Uh,” Harry said, “okay.”

Some people are just awful at conversation.

All of a sudden, Nova’s voice from his left side asked, “Is Arez saying weird shit again?”

“No!” Arez cried.

Predictably, Harry said yes. It was still a betrayal Arez would never forgive, no matter how expected it was, and what total strangers they were.

“He’s not very good at talking to people,” Nova said. “Something to do with going through rough things makes some people too matter-of-fact about it sometimes.”

“Really,” Harry said.

“Yup,” Nova replied. “And some people get really angry.”

The look on Harry’s face was a very clear ‘who put you up to this’. Nova ignored him, turning to Arez and saying, “C’mon, Pixie wants to talk to you.”

“Wait,” Harry said.

Nova looked at him over his shoulder.

“Er, is your brother, Crow, right, is he —?”

Harry glanced at Sirius, then quickly back at Nova, demanding.

Nova snorted. “He’s just a flirt, he’ll realise how much he’s embarrassing himself tomorrow.”

“Right. Good.”

Nova led Arez winding through people. Arez was surprised how much nobody noticed them and wondered, for a moment, if Nova’d made them invisible. Turned out no, he was just good at sneaking. It didn’t seem that weird until Nova led him right past Lao, and out of the kitchen.

“What, Lao —?”

“I lied,” Nova replied. “I needed to get out of there, seemed like you needed to get out of there, you definitely needed to stop saying weird shit to people, the usual.”

“I’m not bad with people,” Arez insisted, “I just don’t care what they think.”

“Aré. I’ve seen you have literal nightmares about what people think of you.”

“No, you haven’t, because I don’t care.”

Nova rolled his eyes.

“ _And_ ,” Arez said, clenching his fists. “And, I don’t like you doing this _thing_ where you keep shoving yourself in my way ’cos you’re protecting people from me! How d’ya think that makes me feel, huh?!”

Nova shrugged. “Stop saying weird shit.”

“I’m not saying weird shit! It’s not my fault people are so _weird_!”

“I wanted to get outta there too,” Nova said. “I don’t really like them. They’re not exactly patient or understanding people.”

“Because only people with saint-like patience and omnipotence can _tolerate_ me!”

“Basically,” Nova said. “Will you chill the fuck out? It’s not all about you.”

“But it is a _bit_.”

“Yeah, Aré, it is a bit. So what.”

Arez didn’t know ‘so what’. He was frustrated, and tired, and he hated all these stupid wizard rules and apathy, and he wanted to go back to prison where at least the apathy was forced by circumstance and always disappeared the minute _anyone_ did anything stupid because they wanted to keep even him alive because as many dainisa alive as possible was good, nobody getting hurt was good, and there he could at least believe if he could permanently break through the forced apathy people would care and escape and maybe genuinely like him but no, not here, where people just didn’t know how to care properly.

And he was really angry at himself for actually missing being _in a concentration camp_.

“I know,” Nova said quietly. Like Arez had said any of it aloud, or even thought any of it loudly. “It’s easy for Pixie because he was raised to talk to people. It’s not so easy when you’ve been told all your life you don’t get to interact with people because you’re a — a whatever.”

Arez remembered Nova’s nightmares, too. How quiet they were, woven through with the only dainisan word Arez could reliably remember: jymnaji.

“This is stupid,” Arez said.

“Yup.”

They went back to the room in silence. Arez didn’t mind it too much. And when they made it back, Nova helped him work on the song until Lao burst in, cheeks flushed, giggles falling away as he collapsed on his bed, curling up.

“Train tomorrow,” Lao murmured. “Go to sleep.”

Was he talking to himself or them? It didn’t matter. They did what he said anyway, and Arez tried not to think anything too authentic about being raised to give orders VS being raised to take orders.

As he lay in bed trying to sleep, Arez found himself thinking at Nova, _Is Lao one of the ones who’s angry?_

Nova replied, ‘ _No shit_.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> q: is a single character ic?  
> a: no, i literally gave up entirely on that futile pursuit when dumbledore started sounding like old man yiffy. it's a fanfic socrates it's not that important


End file.
